Rama Krishna Sangem
BRS MLC Kavitha Kalvakuntla appears to be restive within her own party. Her May 2 dated letter to her father and party supreme KCR which was leaked to media this weekend has triggered speculation on her as well as BRS state of affairs.
Some analysts are seeing this as a storm in a teacup while others are taking this as a curtain raiser to a bigger political churning, both within and outside BRS.
Interestingly, both Kavitha and her elder brother and BRS working president KTR have confirmed the letter. But, Kavitha, who returned to Hyderabad from a brief US tour a couple of days ago, alleged that it was leaked to the media by coverts within the party. Basically the letter was about her feedback on the BRS silver jubilee meeting at Warangal on April 27.
But, it covered much more than that. She primarily focused on her father’s speech and the omissions and commissions at the meeting. On the outset the letter appears to be naïve but its tone and tenor unmistakably indicate clear dissent from her to the on goings in BRS. Or we can understand that she is not happy about her position within her party.
Why is she unhappy?
Kavitha entered politics of TRS way back in 2006-07. After returning from her US education, she joined the cultural front of TRS and very soon founded Telangana Jagrithi. In the initial days, her activity was mostly popularizing the Telangana festival, Bathukamm and bringing out literature etc. Later, she had to share her political space with her brother KTR, who quickly rose in ranks as the No 2 within TRS, after KCR.
In the 2014 elections Kavitha went to Lok Sabha as Nizamabad MP while KTR got elected as MLA from Siricilla and became a minister in KCR Cabinet. Initially, there was no overlapping of roles between them.When KTR became the working president of TRS and Kavitha lost her MP seat, things began turning sour.
Even after losing Nizamabad LS seat, she continued to look after the district party affairs. After she became BRS MLC she expanded her role to the entire Telangana, as the chief Jagrithi. Her arrest in Delhi liquor scam and five months jailterm before 2023 assembly and 2024 LS elections put question marks on her future within the party.
Kavitha as a fighter aspired to hit back at her rivals, BJP and Congress. But, she hates BJP more as the party defeated her in Nizamabad LSseat twice and put her in jail.
An Ambitious leader
Kavitha is an ambitious leader right from the beginning. She never wanted to settle for a behind the scenes role within or outside BRS. She wants to grow big as a woman politician. We can see this from her active role at Jagrithi, not just in Telangana and India, but also abroad. Jagrithi is the only Telangana body with branches all over the world.
She may not have openly talked about ambition to become the CM of Telangana. But, we often hear fans chanting the slogan of “CM, CM” in her meetings. We cannot compare Kavitha with either Supriya Sule of NCP or Kanimozhi of DMK. Kavitha as an MP befriended them both. KTR is a shy or reserved leader, compared to his sister.
He is now officially anointed second in command in BRS. For all practical purposes, KCR has handed over reins of the party to KTR. There are reports that very soon KTR would be made president of BRS while KCR would play the role of national president or honorary president.
KCR may not be averse to take the CM post in case BRScomes to power in 2028, but, the days of KTR emerging overall leader of BRS arenot far. KTR generally doesn’t like two power centres within BRS – one by him and another by Kavitha. KTR is willing to give a suitable role to Kavitha,either as a RS MP or and MLA, but not on equal footing.
But, this is not acceptable to Kavitha. She wants toplay a bigger role, either as BRS working president or national general secretary.And, this is may not be possible for now. KCR, though loves his daughter, is a conservative and traditional person. He is not ready to sideline KTR for the sake of Kavitha.
After all, this is a patriarchal society where sons only inherit their fathers’ legacy. Indira Gandhi inherited her father only because Nehru had no sons. This is the crux of the reason for Kavitha’s restiveness.
What are her options?
At least three options are doing rounds in thesocial and regular media. One, she will float a new political party. Already social media is rife with names of the new party too, a sort of lookalike of BRS. I think this may not happen immediately, even if it will happen sometime in future.New party needs huge funds and she may not support that burden.
Option two – She will continue in BRS but keep puttingpressure on her father and brother for a bigger role and share in power. Thisis possible, because, there is enough space and scope for her to work within BRS.There are reports that her Jagrithi will contest upcoming local body polls, allthe winners will anyway come back to BRS.
Third and final option is her gradual joining of the Congress party. This is possible, as Kavitha in her letter targeted more BJP and was silent on Congress. Already BJP leaders are saying that CM Revanth Reddy is behind Kavitha’s letter attack. Kavitha also sees some brighter future in Congress – to become CM one day – rather than in BRS.
Three is no Fourth option. She cannot go back to BJP, her tormentor. Gradual fading out of active politics too is not an option to Kavitha, who never settles for a lesser slice. Who all will go with her and what kind of impact she will create will only be known through her next moves. And of course, counter-moves.
