Brother-sister battles over political legacy, and the power and pelf that come with it, are not new to Telugu land. Not too long ago, people witnessed a straight fight between Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and Y.S. Sharmila for Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s legacy.
Succession battles within family-run regional political parties are never easy and usually leave even the winners fairly scarred. The one that has been unfolding in Telangana over the past few months in the Bharat Rashtra Samithi supremo K. Chandrashekar Rao’s family —ostensibly among the family and extended family members — is no exception.
Chandrashekar Rao’s suspension of his daughter, K. Kavitha, from the party on disciplinary grounds, coupled with her startling allegations of corruption against some top BRS leaders — packaged as a retaliatory move coinciding with her announcement of quitting both the BRS and the Legislative Council on Wednesday — promises an intriguing drama of palace politics in the days to come.
Brother-sister battles over political legacy, and the power and pelf that come with it, are not new to Telugu land. Not too long ago, people witnessed a straight fight between Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and Y.S. Sharmila for Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s legacy.
The current one in Telangana began as a presumed supremacy fight between Kavitha and K.T. Rama Rao, the heir apparent to Chandrashekar Rao’s legacy and the reins of the BRS. But it took a curious turn in the last few days, with Kavitha shifting her target from her brother to the extended family, particularly her cousins and Mr Chandrashekar Rao’s confidants, T. Harish Rao and J. Santosh Kumar.
The daughter professes that it is not about power or legacy, but about how Chandrashekar Rao, a trusting man, is being bamboozled by those he trusts the most, and how both he and his son, Rama Rao, are in peril — just as the BRS itself is — falling victim to Harish Rao’s machinations and villainy. It is an open secret that even Rama Rao and Harish Rao, a force to reckon with in the BRS, have no love lost for each other but have mastered the art of coexisting due to mutual compulsions.
And though Kavitha’s charges about the corruption of Harish Rao and Santosh Kumar have put the BRS, and consequently Chandrashekar Rao, in a tight spot for the time being, the family feud has only fuelled speculation that the unfolding drama is a well-scripted drama by the core “Kalvakuntla” family, which might be united in its purpose to rid itself of potential risks from within but not of the family. Yet with the blood-letting on, what could remain is an already weakened BRS turning further anaemic.
