Rama Krishna Sangem
Bharat Rashtra Samity (BRS) MLC Kavitha Kalvakuntla’s recent revolt of sorts against her brother and party working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) caught not only her party leaders but also those of other parties unawares. She went to the extent of alleging that there were attempts to merge BRS with the BJP some time ago.
Neither her father, former chief minister and party supremo K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) nor KTR bothered to rebut her allegations. Instead, KCR issued a gag order to all party members against reacting to Kavitha’s charges. For now, Kavitha is quiet, but things may not be okay for her in the future. She has a fight on her hands against her gradual marginalization within BRS.
Odds are stacked against Kavitha, but hopes are alive due to upcoming women’s reservations in legislatures. Kavitha is restive within her party. Her May 2 letter to KCR, which was leaked to the media, has exposed fault lines in BRS. Adding fuel to the fire, she alleged that her father, ‘a god’, is surrounded by devils. She charged that these devils are trying to merge BRS with the BJP.
Kavitha entered politics way back in 2006-07. After returning from the US, where she was studying, she joined the cultural front of TRS and very soon founded Telangana Jagrithi. Initially, her main task was to popularize Telangana festival Bathukamm and the publication of party journals and books.
In the 2014 elections, Kavitha won the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat while KTR was elected as MLA from Siricilla and became a minister in the KCR government. Initially, there was no overlapping of roles between them. But when KTR became the working president of the party, and Kavitha lost her Lok Sabha seat in 2019, the differences between the siblings began to widen.
After losing the Nizamabad LS seat in 2019, she became an MLC. Her arrest in the Delhi liquor scam and five months in jail before the 2023 assembly and 2024 general elections put several question marks on her political future.
As a fighter, Kavitha wanted to hit back at her rivals, the BJP and Congress. But she hates the BJP more because it was the party that defeated her in Nizamabad and put her in jail.
Kavitha is an ambitious politician who never settles for a lesser role in the party. She wants to grow into a big leader. Such a hint emanates from her active role at Jagrithi, a social and cultural group that she founded. Jagrithi is the only Telangana body with branches worldwide.
While KTR is tipped to be the BRS’s chief ministerial candidate in the 2028 assembly polls, he would not want Kavitha to be another power centre in the party. KTR is ready to make Kavitha a Rajya Sabha MP or an MLA in the future, but would not like to give her equal status.
That is not acceptable to Kavitha. She wants a bigger role, either as BRS working president or national general secretary. KCR, though he loves his daughter, will not sideline KTR for the sake of Kavitha.
Kavitha has at least three options. One, she may float a new political party. Already, social media is abuzz with the names of the new party. But this may not happen immediately. A new party needs huge funds, and she may not have that much money with her.
Two, Kavitha will continue with BRS, but keep putting pressure on the father-brother duo for a bigger share of power. This is possible because there is enough space and scope for her to work in BRS. There are reports that Jagrithi will contest the upcoming local body polls.
The third option for her is to join the Congress. In her letter of May 2, she targeted the BJP while remaining silent on the Congress. BJP leaders are already saying that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is behind Kavitha’s letter attack. Although politics springs bizarre surprises, the BJP is currently not an option for her, because she sees it as her tormentor.
