K Chandrashekar Rao or KCR has a track record of never losing an election since 1985.
K Chandrashekar Rao took oath today as the Chief Minister of the country's youngest state for a second time after storming back to power in the recent set of assembly elections. He was administered oath by Governor ESL Narasimhan at a ceremony on the lawns of Raj Bhavan.
Mohammed Mehmood Ali, who was the deputy chief minister in the previous TRS government, took oath as a minister. He is likely to retain the post, reported news agency IANS.
The 64-year-old Chief Minister's gamble of dissolving the state assembly months in advance has paid off in spades -- his Telangana Rashtra Samithi bagged 88 seats in the 119-member assembly, leaving the alliance of the Congress and Chandrababu Naidu trailing far behind with 21 seats.
The mascot of the statehood movement had whipped up the issue of "Telangana pride" against Mr Naidu, whom he accused of discriminating against Telangana before quitting the Telugu Desam party in 2001.
The Andhra Pradesh chief minister is seen as a leader who fought hard against statehood for Telangana and his alliance with the Congress was perceived an attempt to make a backdoor entry into the state. The Telugu Desam Party chief, who was left with a shrunken base after Mr Rao prised off 12 of his lawmakers in 2014, contested only 13 seats. He managed to win just two seats.
Mr Rao even commented that the alliance with him had dented the prospects of the Congress in the state.
The other move that worked for Mr Rao were his welfare measures.
After election victory of 2014 -- months after the new state was carved out -- KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, had embarked on a huge welfare drive that did not leave out any section of the society.
He gave huge cash benefits to farmers, pensions to the elderly, health schemes for all, drinking water connections, 24X7 power and two-bedroom homes to the poor.