K Kavitha faces revolt within Jagruthi as office bearers quit

Within days of quitting K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), former parliamentarian Kavitha Kalvakuntla is facing a revolt by officeholders at Telangana Jagruthi, the socio-cultural organisation she founded.

At least nine office bearers of Telangana Jagruthi, including vice president M Rajeev Sagar, have quit over the last two days, after openly objecting to Kavitha’s recent statements against her cousins--former minister Harish Rao and former Rajya Sabha member Santosh Kumar.

Sagar told ET, “We are political functionaries who have been working for the party. We had been associated with Telangana Jagruthi because of K Chandrasekhar Rao garu. There was a change in Kavitha’s functioning over the last four-five months, and she had been taking a position in direct contradiction of the party line. This was unacceptable to us because Telangana Jagruthi is BRS’ cultural wing, and it should not take a position divergent from the parent party.”


Those who have resigned from Telangana Jagruthi include M Bikshapathy, former chairman of Telangana State Trade Promotion Corporation; Rajaram Yadav, who had contested the Armoor Assembly election; former corporator Vijay Bhasker; Prashanth, a zilla parishad member; Upendra Rao, Suryapet district president of Jagruthi; Kodari Srinivas, president of cultural wing; Anantha Ramulu, Kamareddy district president of Jagruthi; and Shekhar.

The resignations are significant because Jagruthi has been Kavitha’s brainchild and a platform for her people’s outreach. She had founded Telangana Jagruthi in 2006 – even before the bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh. The organisation became a way for Kavitha to work on issues directly affecting the people.

Sagar told ET, “Initially it was about taking the people’s cause but over the last few months, and specifically the last two weeks, Kavitha garu had been attacking our party seniors… This was uncalled for. We have all left Jagruthi because we have been political functionaries. We are not in agreement with this.”

Kavitha, however, is undeterred. On Tuesday, she invoked Telugu pride and threw her weight behind Sudhakar Reddy, the Opposition’s vice-presidential candidate. This comes a day after BRS working president and Kavitha’s brother, KT Rama Rao, announced that the party’s MPs will be abstaining from voting in the election. Although Kavitha is not an MP, and her support would not count, it was posturing with political connotation that she had hardened her position and is not pulling punches.