Open challenge to KCR, KTR? Kavitha 'Akka' to begin four-month-long yatra in Telangana

A month after being suspended from K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), former member of Parliament and Rao’s daughter Kavitha Kalvakuntla has decided to embark on a four-month-long pan-Telangana yatra on October 25 to reconnect with the people across 33 districts as she plans to chart her own course.

In what is being seen as an open challenge to her father and former chief minister, as well as brother KT Rama Rao, Kalvakuntla has decided to re-energise her socio-cultural organisation Telangana Jagruthi with Jagruthi Janam Bata – roughly translated to “Jagruthi goes back to the people”.

She will start her yatra from Nizamabad, a parliamentary constituency she represented from 2014-19.


“I have been left at the crossroads by the party (BRS),” she told ET. “They (the party) could have asked me for an explanation for my remarks or issued me a show-cause notice. But they suspended me without giving me an opportunity to explain. They have broken my heart. There is no going back.”

Kalvakuntla was suspended from the BRS on September 2, following her remarks against cousins Harish Rao and Santosh Kumar. A day later, she resigned from primary membership of the BRS and as member of its legislative council.

Dismissing speculation over her joining the Congress or the BJP, she said, “I am neither joining Congress nor BJP. My first priority is the people of Telangana. I want to re-energise Jagruthi. I had diluted the organisation but now we are hitting the ground running.”

Kavitha, or Akka (elder sister), as she is popularly known among the electorate, said she wants to go back to the people and listen to what they want from the government. “I will travel through the villages and spend a night with the people and hold small meetings to understand their grievances. I will spend at least two days in every district,” she said, “Through the bifurcation we have achieved a geographical Telangana but we haven’t achieved a samajik (social) Telangana. By this, I mean there are no equal opportunities for growth or social justice.”

She cited per capita income statistics to prove that there are major discrepancies in wealth distribution.

Interestingly, Kalvakuntla attended Haryana-based INLD party’s rally on September 25 to commemorate former deputy prime minister Devi Lal’s birth anniversary. When asked why a political leader like her, who is being compared with J Jayalalitha, was aligning with north Indian regional parties, she said, “Congress and BJP have become habituated to winning by default. It is high time that political forces, neither aligned with BJP nor with Congress, should all come together in a Third Front. Regional forces and parties better represent the interests of the people and should come to power in states.”

Kalvakuntla said that she had no intentions of leaving her father’s party but was left with no option. “Unfortunately for me, I bore the brunt of the entire political vendetta targeted towards my father and BRS. Despite this, none of the issues I raised within the party was taken seriously… I was surprised that I was insulted by an MLC and all parties, barring BRS, raised their voice against this,” she said, adding that she was not in touch with her father or brother, who “have not tried getting in touch with me”.