Telangana lawmaker K Kavitha has told NDTV she has "no differences" with her brother, KT Rama Rao, or KTR, and that she has a "special relationship" with the former state minister.
"I have absolutely no qualms about admitting it... I've said it twice and I'm saying it again," she said in an exclusive interview Friday night. Ms Kavitha indicated there are 'vested interests' trying to damage her reputation and standing within the party, i.e., the Bharat Rashtra Samithi led by her father, ex-Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, or KCR.
Ms Kavitha, a Member of the Legislative Council, heads the BRS' women's wing. KTR, a Member of the Legislative Assembly, has been its Working President - a post she wanted - since 2018.
Rumours of a rift between Ms Kavitha and her brother, and indeed with the party, spread in May after a private letter she wrote to her father - in which she described him as a 'god' surrounded by 'devils', a comment seen by some as referring to her brother - was leaked to the media.
READ | 'KCR Is God, Surrounded By Some Devils': K Kavitha On Letter Leak
In the letter - which she later called 'feedback' and tonight told NDTV was part of a ritual she shares with her father - also included references to a speech by KCR at a Warangal meeting.
Ms Kavitha told her father the speech may not have been long enough and suggested it should have been more critical of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. She argued that a more forceful denunciation was called for to dispel talk (then) of a merger between the parties.
READ | "Attempts To Merge BRS With BJP": K Kavitha's Veiled Attack On Brother KTR
Rumours of that merger cropped up while Ms Kavitha was in prison in Delhi - in connection with the liquor excise scam policy that brought down Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party government.
And days after the letter was leaked, she repeated her claim that while she was in jail attempts were made by 'some' - again, seen as a reference to KTR - to merge the BRS and BJP.
But speaking to NDTV today, Ms Kavitha insisted she had no problems with her brother.
"... other leaders as well (were targeted by the 'vested interests') ... it is not only me. Silently there are many people suffering and unfortunately, or fortunately, my issues came out in the open because they were trying to expose the letter that I wrote to my father..."
"... I always did, you know, write to him, from a very young age, even from Class X I write to my father," she told NDTV, "So it is a special relation we have... now it has been made public."
"So, these kinds of people... who do these things... need to be put in their place," the Telangana MLC said, stressing, "I really have no issues with my brother."
