Kavitha skips key TRS meet, triggers buzz

Despite being the chief minister’s daughter and having travelled to Delhi along with her father as part of his “national political mission” in the past, she chose to stay away from the crucial meeting, where the TRS transformed into a national political outfit

The absence of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) lawmaker Kalvakuntla Kavitha at the crucial meeting of the party’s state general body meeting on Wednesday to pass a resolution renaming the party as Bharat Rashtra Samithi raised many an eyebrow.

The absence of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) lawmaker Kalvakuntla Kavitha at the crucial meeting of the party’s state general body meeting on Wednesday to pass a resolution renaming the party as Bharat Rashtra Samithi raised many an eyebrow. (ANI)

More than 230 party delegates, including all MPs, MLAs and MLCs, besides district party presidents and heads of affiliated organisations were present at the meeting to endorse the resolution. Even Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, president of Viduthalai Chirutagal Katchi (VMK) and Chidambaram MP Thol Thirumavalavan and some farmer leaders were among those present at the meeting.

But one person, who was conspicuous by her absence was KCR’s daughter Kavitha, who is an MLC from Nizamabad. Despite being the chief minister’s daughter and having travelled to Delhi along with her father as part of his “national political mission” in the past, she chose to stay away from the crucial meeting, where the TRS transformed into a national political outfit – BRS.

But when the meeting actually started at 11 am at Telangana Bhavan, she was nowhere to be seen, much to the amusement of the party leaders. What is surprising is that Kavitha has not made any statement till Thursday evening, either welcoming the change of TRS into BRS or entry of her father into national politics.

While the TRS leaders are tight-lipped over her absence at the meeting, a close associate of Kavitha, who refused to be named, said she was deeply hurt over the way her father did not involve her in the entire process.

“While KCR’s son KT Rama Rao and nephews T Harish Rao and J Santosh Kumar were part of the discussions on the national party and the changes to be made in the party constitution, Kavitha was completely sidelined, despite the fact that she had handled her father’s national mission plans in the past,” her associate said.

Secondly, Kavitha was also upset with her father not taking her into confidence over the party’s campaign in the by-election to Munugode assembly seat, scheduled to be held on November 3.

“KCR has formed various teams and entrusted key responsibilities to every top leader, including KTR and Harish Rao. Even women ministers like Sabita Indra Reddy and Satyavathi Rathod, besides a few women MLAs, were given the task of campaigning for the party, but to Kavitha,” he said.

Her associate clarified that there were no serious differences between Kavitha and other family members of KCR, but said “certain forces” were influencing KCR to keep her at bay.

“Even when the BJP sought to drag her name into the Delhi liquor policy scam, neither KCR nor other family members came to her defence. She had to defend herself by filing defamation suits against the BJP leaders who made the allegations,” he said.