- K Kavitha resigned from Bharat Rashtra Samithi after being suspended for anti-party activities
- She claims her family faces threats from vested interests within the party and political rivals
- Kavitha alleges her father is influenced by cousins Harish Rao and Santosh Kumar for personal gain
K Kavitha, hours after resigning from her father K Chandrasekhar Rao's Bharat Rashtra Samithi, told NDTV that it was her family and not she, who was being targetted. An intact KCR family was a "threat to people with vested interests" she said, expressing concern that her father and brother could be the next to be "eliminated".
Ms Kavitha, who was suspended from the party yesterday, resigned today - unleashing the political equivalent of a high-intensity quake. While it is known that she was accused of anti-party activities, her father, the former Chief Minister of Telangana, has not commented on the issue.
This evening, asked about the effects of the family feud on the party that has been out of power since 2023, she said, "This is not a family feud".
"This is people with vested interest in a regional party trying to disintegrate a family. If me, my father, my brother are united, they can never take up my father's position. We have safeguarded him. Now they have eliminated me. I am the more vocal person internally also. They have eliminated me. And I fear they'll do the same thing to my brother and my father," she told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
Her father, Ms Kavitha has alleged, is under the influence of her two cousins -- former BRS irrigation minister Harish Rao and Santosh Kumar, a former Rajya Sabha MP. The two had used her father's name to amass wealth for themselves, she had alleged. But her allegation has also pulled down the BRS defense that the "indictment" by the PC Ghose Committee - looking into the alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project -- is "politically motivated".
The 47-year-old leader told NDTV today that her cousins were targetting the family at the behest of the Congress and Chief Minister Revanth Reddy for political and financial gain. The proof, she said, was that despite massive corruption against them, the two are roaming free.
This is a far cry from the situation of her brother KT Rama Rao, who was a minister in the erstwhile BRS government, she said. He is called in for questioning multiple times whenever his name comes up in connection with a case, she said.
"I am 100 per cent sure that Mr Revanth Reddy is backing Harish Rao and Santosh Rao. And because of that strength, they managed to somehow put pressure on my father to suspend me is what I believe," she added.
Asked why her father was taken in by her two cousins and did not give her a hearing, she said, "You have seen the tallest of leaders succumb to the pressure of courtiers. Take example of Sonia ji, Rahul ji, Indira ji. That is what happened here. Nothing fancy".
