Kavitha breaks down in parting speech in state’s upper house

Telangana Jagruti president Kalvakuntla Kavitha on Monday broke down in the state legislative council while delivering his parting speech recounting her role in the Telangana statehood movement, her political journey, and the circumstances that led to her suspension and eventual resignation from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) headed by her father, former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

Choked with emotion and with tears flowing down her cheeks, Kavitha said she had submitted her resignation from the MLC post in the prescribed format on September 3 last year, a day after her suspension from the BRS.

“It is not morally correct to continue in the MLC post which I got from the BRS, as I have severed all ties with the party. I took the decision to resign in a fully conscious state of mind,” Kavitha said and requested council chairman Gutha Sukhender Reddy to accept her resignation.

Later, Kavitha went to the Telangana martyrs’ memorial at Gun Park in front of the state legislature complex and paid floral tributes to those who laid down their lives for separate statehood.

Speaking to reporters, she announced converting her cultural outfit Telangana Jagruthi into a full-fledged political party. “I am coming out soon with an alternative political platform. Telangana needs a political party that genuinely works for the state in the next assembly elections,” she said.

She appealed to all the like-minded forces, including Left sympathisers, students, unemployed youth and women to support her mission and stand by her in the new endeavour.

Kavitha said she had been in public life for nearly two decades and entered the Telangana movement in 2006, inspired by her father KCR and Telangana ideologue late K Jayashankar. “Though my father served as a Union minister, I began my journey independently through Telangana Jagruti platform and organised several programmes to mobilise women and youth in support of Telangana movement,” she said.

Kavitha also claimed that she had played a key role in bringing pressure on the then UPA government in granting statehood to Telangana. “After the formation of Telangana state, I never aspired for any posts, but the BRS leadership asked me to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Nizamabad,” she said.

However, she alleged that restrictions on her activities began soon after the formation of Telangana in 2014, even as she continued organising Bathukamma celebrations under the Jagruti banner. Right from the day one, her freedom of expression was curtailed within the party, she alleged.

She lamented that she was sidelined and eventually expelled through a “vindictive conspiracy”, without ever being part of key state-level decisions.

She alleged that there had been massive corruption in major projects such as the secretariat, Ambedkar statue, Amara Jyoti and collectorate constructions. “Repeated representations regarding corruption by certain public representatives, illegal sand mining and atrocities on Dalits went unaddressed. I tried to bring them to the notice of KCR, but there was no response,” she said.

She said she had also opposed renaming Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) as BRS and criticised the party’s national ambitions. “What can a party which could do little for Telangana in 10 years, do to the nation?” she asked.

Kavitha alleged that she was jailed due to political vendetta and was left to fight cases by herself for three years against central agencies, without party support. She criticised her suspension from BRS, alleging that it was carried out overnight without notice or seeking her explanation.

She described the party constitution as a “joke,” as it was hardly a eight-page document. While stating that she could legally challenge the suspension, she said she chose not to, asserting that she was happy to distance herself from what she described as a party lacking moral credibility.

Kavitha said that although her path may now be different, her goal remained the same — the welfare of the people of Telangana.

The BRS has not yet reacted to Kavitha’s allegations against the party and her plans to launch a new political outfit.