Fire of dissent lit up by Kavitha in BRS grows bigger

At a time when the Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana is struggling to cope with the challenges, particularly the ones thrown at it by the ruling Congress in the matter of alleged irregularities in the construction of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) barrages by announcing to seek Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) probe into it after the Vigilance and Judicial Commission inquiries, the outbursts of BRS MLC and disgruntled leader K. Kavitha appear to have been causing deeper consternation within the organisation.

Ms. Kavitha’s direct attack on senior leader of the party and former Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao, who has been a trusted lieutenant of the party chief K. Chandrashekar Rao from the beginning, and former member of Rajya Sabha J. Santosh Kumar is being seen as the fall out of differences she has with some party leaders reaching a flashpoint. She has been targeting the two along with veiled attack on her sibling and working president K.T. Rama Rao, ever since she has come out of jail in the Delhi liquor policy case in August last year.

The two leaders named by her as being responsible for Mr. Chandrashekar Rao’s problems, particularly the attempts to portray him as a wrong-doer with the announcement of CBI inquiry into the Kaleshwaram Barrages. By alleging that going on to state that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy was behind the them to defame Mr. Chandrashekar Rao, she said the two leaders have been acting as puppets in the hands of Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) forces working against Mr. Chandrashekar Rao, to protect the ill-gotten money they made from 2014-2023 by keeping the party chief in the dark and deceiving him.

She observed that Mr. Harish Rao was not included in the Cabinet by Mr. Chandrashekar Rao after the party was voted to power for the second time in 2018 as he was aware of the activities of the former. However, political exigencies made the leadership take him into the Cabinet in 2019. Ms. Kavitha said she was forced to take their names now since their actions have brought disrepute to the towering personality of Mr. Chandrashekar Rao

Despite the private talk that there was a growing disappointment among party leaders against Ms. Kavitha’s criticism of some of them, nobody had dared to speak against her openly so far since she’s daughter of the party supremo Mr. Chandrashekar Rao. A close confidante of Mr. Chandrashekar Rao, G. Jagadish Reddy recently said such matters would be taken care of by the party chief at an appropriate time. When contacted, a few senior leaders refused to comment on Ms. Kavitha’s episode stating that it would be handled by the party chief alone.

Sources privy to the developments within the party state that Mr. Chandrashekar Rao was cut-up with Ms. Kavitha following her public postures, particularly since May this year, as she has stopped visiting the party office and holding meetings only in the name of Telangana Jagruthi by disassociating herself completely with party activities.

Now that the water has started flowing overhead, all eyes are focused on the party chief as to what course of action he would resort to, to douse the fire within the party before it gets out of control!