Hyderabad, March 25 (IANS) The rift in the family of former Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, which came out in open with his daughter K. Kavitha’s letter and “devils around god” remark, has created fresh turmoil in their Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which is struggling to bounce back after losing power in 2023 and drawing a blank in the Lok Sabha elections last year.
A confidential letter written by Kavitha to her father and BRS supremo K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) embarrassed the party, which was hoping to make a roaring comeback after a massive show of strength with the Warangal public meeting on April 27 to mark its silver jubilee.
Kavitha’s handwritten letter to KCR raised both positive and negative feedback from the public meeting and his speech.
This is the first time that a letter written to KCR by his family member has become public, sending tremors in the party run by him with full control for 25 years.
Kavitha, a member of the Telangana Legislative Council, was in the US to attend her son’s graduation ceremony when the letter surfaced on social media on Friday.
The next day, Kavitha, on her return to Hyderabad, dropped another bomb with the remark that “KCR is like a god, but he is surrounded by devils”. She claimed that her apprehension about conspiracies in the party is coming true.
While defending the points she raised in the letter, Kavitha said the letter reflected the views of the party leaders.
Stating that she wrote a similar letter to KCR in the past, she expressed surprise on how the internal letter got leaked.
“How an internal letter written by me to KCR became public is an issue which everyone in the party needs to think over,” said Kavitha, who clarified that she had no personal agenda.
“Our leader is KCR. The state will prosper under his leadership. The BRS will march ahead under KCR’s leadership,” she maintained.
Kavitha’s remarks hinted at the sibling rivalry in the KCR family. There have been speculations for long that Kavitha is not happy with her only brother K. T. Rama Rao (KTR) being projected as KCR’s heir-apparent.
Kavitha and KCR’s nephew and key party leader T. Harish Rao felt sidelined at the Warangal public meeting as only KTR’s pictures were used along with those of KCR on banners and posters.
There were reports that Harish Rao, who is the seniormost BRS leader after KCR in his family, is planning to leave the party.
Speculations of differences between Harish Rao and KTR have been doing the rounds for many years. However, Harish Rao made a statement on May 13 that he is ready to accept the leadership of KTR.
“I have said this many times, and I am saying it again. My leader is KCR, and I will follow whatever KCR says,” said Harish Rao, a member of the Assembly from Siddipet.
Harish Rao, who has been associated with the BRS since its launch by KCR 25 years ago, stated that he is a disciplined worker of the party and that there is no question of going against the party’s decision.
“If KTR is entrusted with the responsibility of leading the party, I will fully support him. I will abide by KCR’s decision,” he said.
After Harish Rao’s clarification, things seemed to have stabilised for the party as it was planning to aggressively take on the ruling Congress over its alleged failure to fulfil promises made in the elections.
However, the leakage of Kavitha’s letter landed the BRS in a new controversy, and her “devils around god” remark added fuel to the fire.
The remark triggered a debate in political circles on whether her target was KTR. Some people believed that she was referring KTR, Harish Rao, and also Santosh Rao (son of KCR’s sister-in-law).
KTR, while addressing a press conference on Saturday, evaded a direct reply when asked whom Kavitha might have been referring to. The BRS Working President tried to divert the focus with the remark that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy is the demon as has been named in the charge sheet in the National Herald case.
On Kavitha’s remark that BRS will grow only if “coverts” are isolated from the party, her brother said coverts exist in every party and also suggested that Revanth Reddy might have planted moles within the party.
While stating that anyone can address a letter to the party president, KTR felt that internal matters should be discussed internally.
The perceived sibling rivalry may rock the BRS boat at a time when it was gearing up to bounce back by cornering the Congress government over its alleged failures.
Political analysts believe that Kavitha wanted to assert herself as she was forced to stay out of the limelight after her release on bail in the Delhi liquor policy case.
She spent more than five months in Tihar Jail after being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in March last year.
After lying low for a few months, Kavitha became active, taking up various issues, especially related to women and backward classes and the alleged unkept promises of the Congress government. In an apparent bid to counter her brother’s growing influence, she was also organising her own programmes with the slogan of “Samajika (democratic) Telangana”.
Kavitha, in her six-page letter to KCR, listed out both positive and negative feedback from the Warangal public meeting.
The MLC, who accused BJP of a witch-hunt in Delhi liquor policy case, did not like her father adopting a soft stance towards the saffron party.
“Since you spoke about the BJP for only two minutes, many people started speculating that there will be an alliance with the BJP in the future. I felt you should have spoken more strongly against them. Maybe because I personally suffered,” she wrote.
Kavitha also felt that KCR should have spoken in Urdu and on the Waqf Amendment Act, sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes and enhanced reservation for backward classes.
She also found fault with the party’s decision not to contest the MLC election to the Hyderabad Local Authorities Constituency, saying this sent the wrong message that the BRS indirectly helped the BJP.
Kavitha also wrote that the party was expecting KCR could give a specific programme or direction to the party ranks in the present political scenario.
She also felt that leaders who have been with the party since 2001 should have been given an opportunity to speak at the Warangal public meeting.
–IANS
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