A major internal dispute within Telangana’s opposition BRS party resulted in the suspension of K. Kavitha, the daughter of party founder K. Chandrashekhara Rao, on Tuesday. The party cited “anti-party activities” as the reason for her ouster.
Both the ruling Congress and the BJP have downplayed the situation as a mere family drama. Nevertheless, these parties have used Kavitha’s allegations of corruption against her cousins, prominent BRS leaders, to criticize KCR and his party, focusing on corruption charges. The final straw was Kavitha’s continued accusations against her cousins, former irrigation minister T. Harish Rao and former MP J. Santosh Rao, leading to her suspension, which was announced by BRS general secretary T. Ravinder Rao.
This decision triggered immediate protests from the supporters of Telangana Jagruti, a social organization founded by Kavitha. Kavitha had alleged that her cousins amassed significant wealth and implicated her father, KCR, in the alleged irregularities related to the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project. Her supporters protested, claiming she had been wronged.
BRS’s political adversaries have dismissed the events as a staged affair. BJP Telangana state president N. Ramchander Rao used Kavitha’s accusations to attack the former CM and his party, claiming that her allegations revealed corruption within the BRS government and the resulting conflict within the family over the distribution of ill-gotten wealth. Mahesh Kumar Goud, president of Telangana Congress, echoed this view, calling Kavitha’s suspension a pre-arranged move and accusing KCR’s family of widespread corruption.
Kavitha had accused Harish and Santosh of corruption in the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project, which is currently under CBI investigation. According to her, they had acquired substantial assets, leading to a CBI probe initiated by the Telangana government. Additionally, a judicial commission has been formed to examine the alleged irregularities.