Telangana Rastra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has one interesting quality.
If he thinks a particular leader is of a big use to him personally, he would promote him and safeguards his political interests, notwithstanding the fact that he is rejected by the people in the elections.
But if a leader is not of much use, he will simply ignore him irrespective of his services or loyalty to the party and his popularity among the masses.
So for the TRS chief, loyalty to him is more important than loyalty to the party or the Telangana cause.
On Friday, KCR rewarded his loyalist and former MP B Vinod Kumar by appointing him as the vice-chairman of state planning commission for the simple reason that Vinod happens to be a member of his inner circle, though he was defeated in the recent Lok Sabha elections from Karimnagar with a big margin.
While KCR, in the capacity of the chief minister, will be the chairman of the state planning commission, Vinod will be its vice-chairman with a cabinet rank.
He will be a permanent invitee to the State Cabinet meetings and his term of office will be for three years.
“Since the State Planning Commission plays an important role in the matters on the state development, Vinod Kumar, a very experienced leader, has been made the vice-chairman. He is entrusted with an important responsibility to review and prepare proposals from all the departments in the backdrop of the government introducing a full-fledged budget for the year 2019-20,” a CMO official said.
Vinod’s elevation also raises an important question over the fate of KCR’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha, who had lost as Nizamabad MP in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
She has been sidelined ever since her defeat, but of late, she has started surfacing in public.
The other day, Kavitha travelled along with KCR to Kanchi to have darshan of Athi Varadan and then had lunch at YSR Congress party MLA R K Roja’s residence.
This led to the talk that KCR will bring her back into limelight by giving some important post, sources said.