Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao will start the final year in office in his second term on Tuesday and enter the 'election year' as the head of the BRS government, with a focus on scoring a hat-trick as well as going national.
Rao took the oath of office for the second time on December 13, 2018, after the TRS won the Assembly elections capturing 88 of the 119 Assembly seats.
The CM's fifth and final year in office is notable because the TRS, which he founded in 2001 and catapulted to power twice in 2014 and 2018, is no longer in existence, having been transformed into the BRS on December 10, just two days before the TRS government was to complete four years in office in its second term.
While in his first term, the CM's priority schemes were Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bima, sheep distribution scheme, and Kanti Velugu, which were launched just before the 2018 polls, in his second term the CM is focusing on
Rythu Bandhu, Dalit Bandhu, Kanti Velugu again, and Rs 3 lakh financial assistance to poor owning plots to construct houses, for the upcoming Assembly polls scheduled for December 2023 to secure the party's 'hat-trick victory', a feat no party in undivided Andhra Pradesh has achieved in the last four decades.
The TRS strength has increased to 104 in the last four years, with the joining of 12 Congress, two TD and two independent MLAs.
Although the TRS later lost two seats to the BJP in the bypolls held in Dubbak and Huzurabad, it made up by defeating the Congress in bypolls held in Huzurnagar and Munugode.
According to party sources, Rao is expected to form a 'task force' soon with ministers K.T.Rama Rao and T.Harish Rao to prepare the party for the 2023 Assembly elections, as he will be engaged in national political activities with the launch of BRS.