The power tussle within Telangana's former ruling party Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) intensified on Thursday with ex-chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao's (KCR's) daughter K Kavitha firing a fresh salvo at party's working president and her brother KT Rama Rao.
Kavitha, who has been in the news over the past week after a letter she wrote to her father KCR earlier this month "leaked" recently, claimed during an interaction this morning that there were efforts underway within the BRS to merge it with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Congress party is in power in the state while the BRS and BJP are in the Opposition.
"I have only one leader, that is KCR. I will work only under one leader, that is KCR," Kavitha said interacting with the media on Thursday, adding that there is an "ongoing effort to merge BRS with BJP".
Kavitha, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in March -- and later by the Central Bureau of Investigation -- last year in connection with the Delhi excise policy case, claimed that an offer was made to merge BRS with BJP when she was in prison. Kavitha spent five months in jail before being granted bail.
"I said a resounding ‘No’ to it at that time because BRS is a regional party which should be alive to represent and safeguard the concerns of Telangana people," she said. Kavitha had written a letter to KCR, criticizing him for not taking on the BJP in the state.
On Thursday, she alleged that "covert operatives in the party" were working against her, an apparent reference to her brother KTR, and that she has stood firm with the party.
"I think that the BJP will gain if the BRS weakens. I think that all efforts should be made not to merge the BRS with any other party, be it the Congress or the BJP," she said, adding that she considers KCR as her only leader.
Kavitha currently heads the party's women's wing and is a Member of the Legislative Council (state’s upper house). She said that the party’s activities are being "limited to Twitter posts".
"Where is the grassroots mobilisation when KCR was served notice to appear before an inquiry committee? Is there anything in my letter which was untrue or unreasonable?" she asked, claiming that she was being targeted for speaking the truth.
Kavitha also refuted allegations that she leaking the letter herself and called for action against those responsible for the act. She also dismissed the allegation that she was acting at the behest of other parties to weaken the BRS.
"It is being alleged that the Congress is giving me support. It is absolutely untrue. I do not do covert politics. I speak my heart as I am doing right now," she said.
Amid the power tussle, KTR has remained largely silent on the controversy around the leaked letter and claimed that internal democracy allowed anyone to write a letter to their leader KCR.
Kavitha, however, questioned KTR's claim of party democracy and asked why the girl child of the house was being dragged through the muck because she wrote a letter.
"Someone has declared that there is democracy within the party. Then why is the girl child of the house being dragged through the muck because she wrote a letter? I have written over a hundred letters to my father and party president, as that is my way of operating within the party," she added.
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