The lament of K Kavitha: Why this BRS sibling saga is playing out in public

However, a powerful section in the party was also growing restless. They felt Kavitha was vying for power at the expense of her brother and BRS working president K T Rama Rao, popularly known as KTR. Former Telangana CM and BRS national president K Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known as KCR, was largely absent from the scene and remained silent.

It is this impasse that is believed to have built up to the May 2 letter by Kavitha, in which she criticised her father for not campaigning as needed against the BJP, a party that, she wrote, caused her much personal “suffering” as she was imprisoned for five months without bail. The BRS leader was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI, which come under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

“Daddy, you spoke about the BJP only for two minutes and this has led to speculation that you are planning to ally with them in the future. Personally, maybe because I suffered, I wish you should have targeted the BJP more,” read the letter. It also spoke of KCR’s inaccessibility to party leaders and the BRS’s lack of initiative in politically fighting the Congress, which is in power in the state, and the BJP, which has been trying to find a place of its own in Telangana.

All this put together has been read by some sections close to KTR and KCR’s nephew Harish Rao as Kavitha’s play to take control of the party. “Even when Harish Rao was ready to work for the BRS under KTR, Kavitha was silent,” said a source close to KTR.

Kavitha minced no words when she addressed a media conference on Thursday to further underline her grouse with the BRS leadership. “I have only one leader, that is KCR … I will work for only one leader, that is KCR,” she said.

Without taking her brother’s name, Kavitha said the BRS leadership had become inactive and efforts were being made to merge the regional party with the BJP. “When I was in prison, I was approached with the proposition that BRS could be merged with the BJP. I rejected it outright,” she said.

Ups and downs

Sources close to Kavitha say she is not vying for power but for “her place within the party”. “She was at the forefront of Telangana agitation. She set up Telangana Jagruti, an NGO, which furthers the cause of Telangana. She has done more for the cultural and political upliftment of Telangana than any other BRS leader. But where is the recognition? Why did the party not recognise her contribution?” said a BRS insider.

In 2014, Kavitha was elected Nizamabad MP and was the face of the BRS at the national level. However, she lost her seat to the BJP five years later and moved on to the state Legislative Council. This was considered a political fall to a great extent, and her arrest last year made matters worse. Kavitha told the media on Thursday that she had offered to resign from the party and her MLC post when she was charged in the excise policy case. “But my father, KCR, said resignation was not necessary,” she said.

But it came to a point when Kavitha’s survival depended on her political future in the BRS, even as the party propped up KTR as KCR’s heir apparent. Sources close to her said that while the BJP ran “vicious” social media campaigns calling Kavitha “liquor queen”, the BRS remained silent. “In all this, when has the party come for her rescue? Has anyone in the party supported her the way other leaders are supported in times of crisis?” said a source close to her.

KTR’s close confidants said he had never asked party leaders to target his sister. “He has always considered her his little sister and has always been protective of her. She is being misled by her close coterie,” said a KTR confidant.

Those close to Kavitha said this turmoil in the party could end up affecting the party. Telangana Jagruti, Kavitha’s pet project, has been a hit among the BRS’s women supporters. “She made Bathukamma (a traditional Telangana festival) a trend across Telangana. Why does the party want to lose face among its women voters by not protecting and supporting the woman leader of the Kalvakuntla house?” asked a political leader close to Kavitha.