It is an open secret that the journalist community in Telangana is vertically divided right from the days of Telangana movement.
Though as a journalist, one has to take a neutral stand, many scribes openly supported the Telangana movement and even took part in the movement under the banner of Telangana Journalists’ Forum.
After the formation of Telangana, this forum comprising several media activists extended their solidarity with Telangana Rashtra Samithi government headed by K Chandrasekhar Rao.
While highlighting the demands of the journalists, they have refused to put up a fight against the government and instead, openly supported TRS and KCR strongly.
They did not even hesitate to attack other journalists who questioned the KCR government and on every given opportunity, they took part in milk-bathing of KCR portraits and conducted meetings in support of the chief minister.
This loyalty has paid off for this pro-KCR media group. Chanti Kranthi Kiran, who was working for popular television channel TV9 and was heading this pro-TRS journalists’ union, was rewarded with the party ticket in the assembly elections from Andole assembly constituency in Medak district, in place of sitting MLA Babu Mohan, who subsequently defected to the BJP.
Many thought Kranthi was not a hot favourite in the elections as he was fighting a mighty leader like Damodar Raja Narasimha, former deputy chief minister in combined Andhra Pradesh.
But, to everybody’s surprise, the journalist recorded an impressive victory in the elections defeating the former Dy CM with a margin of over 21,000 votes. And he emerged as a giant killer!