Barring a huge personal and political embarrassment to party supremo K Chandrashekar Rao, his daughter K Kavitha's exit from the Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi (BRS) failed to impose heavy costs on the party.
Kavitha is not just a scion of former Chief Minister of Telangana, popularly called KCR. She also played a key role in the Telangana movement that the then Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) led, especially through its cultural wing Telangana Jagruti which Kavitha heads.
Post 2014, Kavitha enjoyed power as well, representing the party from the Nizamabad Lok Sabha segment. But she was banished to the Legislative Council after losing the subsequent Lok Sabha elections.
In fact, the revolt of Kavitha came at a most inopportune time for the patriarch. The BRS is not in power now, the Congress government is trying to put him in dock as the state government-appointed PC Ghosh Commission found KCR guilty in what is being alleged as a multi-crore irrigation scam, popularly referred to as the Kaleshwaram scam. The case is now being handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigations. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), meanwhile, is leaving no stone unturned to replace BRS as the principal Opposition party in the state in a bid to capture power in the 2028 Assembly elections.
The inheritance question remains unresolved with his son and the party working president KT Rama Rao and his nephew, T Harish Rao, vying for the ageing patriarch’s political legacy.Kavitha’s similar ambitions seem to have resulted in the current turbulence.
The reasons for Kavitha’s lacklustre show are manifold. Such internal family feuds are not uncommon in regional parties led by political families. Voters do not see it as any strange attribute of the BRS. But in a deeply patriarchal society, daughters, unfortunately, hardly gain political legitimacy. The story of YS Sharmila in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh is a telling example. Sharmila’s claims to her father’s political legacy failed to dampen her brother YS Jaganmohan Reddy, though the latter lost power due to a host of other reasons.
Strategic Battle Within the Family
Even the Telangana Jagruti, which Kavitha claims to have founded, is not independent of the Telangana movement and the BRS.
There is an interesting comparison between Sharmila and Kavitha. YS Sharmila made a significant contribution to YSR Congress as she took a marathon Padayatra when her brother YS Jagan was in jail. Despite massive support for her brother, she was denied any political role in the party, leave alone any elected position. Coupled with the property disputes, Sharmila revolted against YS Jagan and ended up providing political fodder for Jagan’s rivals despite her leading the state Congress.
Kavitha seems to have lost the political narrative as well. She is defending both KCR and KT Rama Rao, popularly called KTR. But, her fight is with T Harish Rao. Thus, it robbed off the shine from what could have, otherwise, been an inheritance battle. But, party insiders reveal that the move is more strategic than meets the eye. Kavitha wants Harish Rao to exit the fray and would later take on KTR to be KCR’s successor. However, such a strategy cuts no ice with either BRS followers, or the electorate in general.
Kavitha made two specific charges against Harish Rao. Firstly she accuses Harish Rao of trying to take over the party in what is purportedly referred to as a sort of a family coup. This narrative would not convince the people as KCR is not a political novice to allow any such thing to happen. KCR is in full control of the party and made his son party working president and a de facto Chief Minister in his cabinet, clearly pushing Harish Rao to backseat.
It is of common political knowledge that Harish Rao feels increasingly isolated within the party, as and when the succession question comes to the fore within the party and the family.
The BJP has often sent him feelers publicly and expressed its readiness to embrace Harish Rao in case he revolts against his uncle. But, Harish Rao stridently dismissed any such speculations and demonstrated an unflinching loyalty to KCR’s leadership.
Harish Rao’s political acumen makes him rather indispensable within the party. The only leader who can perhaps damage the party in case of any revolt is Harish Rao alone, something which is an acceptable formulation across the political divide.
Allegations of Corruption
Kavitha’s second charge is that Harish Rao along with his cousin Santosh Rao, known to be very close with KCR, of indulging in massive corruption in executing the ambitious Kaleshwaram irrigation project. Santosh Rao is a former Rajya Sabha member but hardly politically prominent in public, despite his key in role in party due to his proximity to KCR.
Kavitha further accuses that the corruption led by Harish Rao and Santosh Rao resulted in maligning KCR. Such an argument does not hold water as the then Chief Minister cannot be given a clean chit in a project that entailed an expenditure running into thousands of crores. The then irrigation minister cannot alone be accused.
Thus, Kavitha’s tirade against Harish Rao ended up providing ammo to BRS rivals like the Congress and the BJP. Both the Congress and BJP were quick to jump onto the bandwagon by claiming that Kavitha’s statements validated their allegations of massive corruption during KCR's reign.
The BRS came down heavily on Kavitha and strongly rallied behind Harish Rao. Kavitha’s tirade has, in fact, consolidated Harish Rao’s position within the BRS with both the party and KTR coming out openly in appreciation of his role, a spectacle that was rarely seen from the party leadership, given the behind the scene internal power struggle.
Family Feud or Public Cause?
Kavitha’s political crusade turned into a family dispute rather than a political, ideological struggle based on a public cause. Why would the public bother about such family disputes, that too when they are no longer in power?
Meanwhile, BRS leaders are alleging that the Congress Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is behind Kavitha’s revolt. Though no party would hesitate to capitalise on the unholy developments in the rival party, weakening of BRS will not be of use for the ruling Congress party.
In fact, the Congress will benefit from the division in Opposition space. This is evident from a scrutiny of the vote shares of different parties in the 2023 Assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP and the BRS together polled little over 50 percent votes while the Congress vote share remained around 40 percent.
BJP’s Calculations and Kavitha’s Future
The BJP is trying hard to capitalise on the disturbances in BRS. There is also a speculation in political circles that the BJP high-command is perhaps behind the Kavitha episode. It may be noted here that Kavitha was imprisoned by Central agencies over her alleged role in the Delhi Liquor Scam. Similar reports ha incidentally surfaced when YS Sharmila launched YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP).
Kavitha's failure to trigger any large-scale disruption in BRS with her revolt is also evident from the fact that both the Congress and the BJP express their unwillingness to embrace her despite her falling out from with arch rival KCR.
Of course, Kavitha has not publicly expressed any intention to opt for either of those parties. She is all set to launch her own political outfit, as any rapprochement within the BRS' first family seems unlikely at this point in time. However, politics is always prone to spring surprises especially in family dramas. In the meantime, Kavitha’s new party is likely to further choke the already crowded political space of Telangana.
(Prof K Nageshwar is a senior political analyst, faculty member of Osmania University, and a former MLC. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)