Kancherla Keshava Rao, popularly known as KK (born 4 June 1939), is an Indian politician from Telangana Rashtra Samithi party. He is a Member of the Parliament of India in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament. Rao was first elected to Rajya Sabha in 2006 and served until 2012, and was re-elected in 2014 representing Andhra Pradesh. Despite being from Telangana he was assigned to Andhra Pradesh because of the lot method used to assign Rajya Sabha members for the newly created Telangana and residual Andhra Pradesh. In 2020, he was re-elected to Rajya Sabha again for a six-year term representing Telangana. Early life He was born to K. Niranjan Rao and Govindamma in Mahbubabad, Warangal, Hyderabad State on 13 December 1940 ( official records 6, June, 1939 ). He did his B.Comm at Badruka College, then pursued an M.A. at Arts College, Osmania University and later PhD from Osmania University, Hyderabad. Career He started his career as a journalist, actor producer after a shot stint as teacher at Mahboob College MP High School. He was editor of The Daily News,a popular daily in English, printed from Hyderabad. He had his apprentice in the Indian Express, Vijayawada and The Patriot, Delhi. His writings were well received. He opposed the Emergency (1975–77), particularly the censorship of the media and The Daily News was blacklisted for it. Rao has been a senior Congressmen, holding many high positions in the Party and Government. He and was elected as the President of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (2005) and was later made the member of the Congress Working Committee, All India Congress Committee (AICC), in the year 2009. He was put in charge of Party affairs in four States: West Bengal, Jharkhand, Assam and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Rao was a Cabinet Minister in the three consecutive governments in the state of Andhra Pradesh, holding important portfolios like Education, Industry and Labor. Earlier Keshava Rao was Dy Chairman of the Legislative Council of Andhra Pradesh. He was elected to legislative council for two terms from Graduates constituency. He was also Chairman of the Minimum Wages Board and chairman of Rajiv Gandhi Technology Mission with cabinet rank. He was elected to Rajya Sabha 2006–12. He was a great protagonist of Telangana and had Leftist leanings. In May 2013, Keshava Rao quit Indian National Congress, of which he was a senior person,