After brother KTR, Kavitha trains guns on cousin Harish Rao: ‘Responsible for CBI inquiry’ against father KCR

These remarks come hours after Revanth Reddy announced that the KCR government’s flagship Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project would be probed by the CBI.

While Harish Rao remained unavailable for comment, the BRS party leadership told The Indian Express that the party has not decided whether to respond to Kavitha.

Kavitha claimed Rao was “responsible for the CBI inquiry” against KCR.

“How is it possible that the same people are still leading the party,” Kavitha said. “Harish Rao who served as irrigation minister for five years – does he not have a role in this? He is responsible for the allegations which are being levelled against KCR now”.

She went on to claim: “Another such person is Megha Krishna Reddy (builder and industrialist). And former Rajya Sabha MP (Santosh Kumar). While KCR had been working for the people of Telangana, these people worked for their own benefit, for amassing wealth for themselves”.

Blaming Harish Rao, she said that despite him “running negative campaigns targeting her”, she had “never named him”.

“I’m naming him now because he has caused this great atrocity on KCR. A CBI enquiry is being initiated against KCR. Why should I protect such people?” she asked.

She said that she suspected Revanth Reddy was “behind Harish Rao and Santosh Kumar”.

“Revanth Reddy does not target them but targets KCR,” she said.

Speaking in favour of her father, she added: “As KCR’s daughter, I know that after he became chief minister, he had researched for months about how to get water for Telangana. KCR is someone who spends less than 0.1 percent of his time thinking about his personal matters. The rest if all spent for the welfare of the people of Telangana”.

Revanth Reddy spoke for hours in the Assembly only to defame KCR, she alleged.

“If Kaleshwaram is an ocean, Medigadda barrage (which sank) was only a small part of it. But the Congress government is promoting the idea that Kaleshwaram was a failure and it wholly sunk,” she added.

In May, Kavitha had created a flutter in Telangana’s political space when she had targeted the BRS leadership — including her brother and working president of BRS K T Rama Rao — saying there were “covert operatives in the party” working against her. She had also claimed there were attempts to merge the BRS party with the BJP.

This was after a letter she wrote to her father KCR leaked to the press. She had written a letter to KCR saying she was disappointed that he had “failed” to bombard the BJP with adverse remarks. Back then Kavitha had said that “there are covert operatives who have surrounded KCR”. “If KCR is God, then these coverts are demons,” she had said.

The Kaleshwaram project on the Godavari is the world’s largest multi-stage lift irrigation project. Work was completed in 2019, under Telangana’s BRS government.

The decision to transfer the probe to the CBI was taken after a marathon debate over PC Ghose commission report, which was tabled in the Assembly Sunday.

On October 21, 2023, one of the pillars — No. 20 of block 7 — of the Medigadda Barrage sank, which led to flooding. An NDSA team examined the sunken pillar on October 25, and held an appraisal meeting with L&T, the company executing the project.

On February 13, 2024, the Congress-led Telangana government asked the NDSA to carry out a “thorough inspection of the design and construction of the three barrages” of the project. The NDSA visited all the three barrages the following month.

In its report, the one-man Justice PC Ghose commission pointed out that the decision to construct barrages at Medigadda, Annaram and Sudilla was the “sole and individual decision” of KCR and then irrigation minister T Harish Rao.

Meanwhile, in a post on X, the BRS commended Harish Rao’s speech in the Assembly. KTR reposted it, calling Harish Rao an “able disciple of KCR”.