BRS suspends MLC K. Kavitha for anti-party activities

A day after she triggered a storm in the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) by accusing her cousins and party leaders T. Harish Rao and J. Santosh Kumar of tarnishing her father and former Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao's image over the Kaleshwaram project, K. Kavitha was suspended from the BRS as a member of the legislative council on Tuesday.

BRS president KCR has decided to suspend Kavitha with immediate effect, party general secretaries T. Ravinder Rao and Soma Bharat Kumar said in a communiqué to the media. Kavitha's behaviour in recent times and her anti-party activities have been hurting the BRS. The leadership has taken serious note of it, the communiqué said.

Reacting to the Congress government announcing a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram project undertaken during the previous BRS regime, Kavitha on Monday said some who are close to KCR have benefited in many ways by making use of his name and he was being defamed because of their "misdeeds".

She had alleged that Harish Rao and Santosh Kumar were responsible for KCR being tainted by allegations of corruption in the Kaleshwaram project issue. While KCR focused on helping people, they sought to increase their wealth through clandestine dealings with contractors, she had alleged.

She also claimed that incumbent chief minister A. Revanth Reddy was behind Harish Rao and Santosh Kumar.

Kavitha has been making critical remarks against some party leaders for several months now without naming them. She has been organising political activities under the banner of 'Telangana Jagruti', a cultural organisation she heads.

Internal differences within the BRS first came to the fore in May this year, with Kavitha taking exception to a letter she wrote to KCR about party affairs getting leaked.

She had then said some conspiracies were being hatched in the party, and that KCR is "like a god who is surrounded by some devils".

Responding to her comments then, Kavitha's brother and BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao had asserted that internal party matters should be discussed within the party fora instead of speaking out in public.

In August, Kavitha was removed as the honorary president of the BRS-affiliated trade union in the state-run coal mining company Singareni Collieries. On her removal as the honorary president of the union, Kavitha took exception to her replacement by a new leader.