A few dozen people waited outside the party office next to the residence of Kalvakuntla Kavitha in Hyderabad’s upscale Banjara Hills. Some of them were there to join her new party, Telangana Rakshana Sena (TRS), whose acronym is similar to that of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, founded by her father, former Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, in April 2001.
Kavitha launched the party on April 25 and announced her vision for the state, titled Panchajanyam. It rests on five key assurances: free education for all, universal health care, funding support for startups, dedicated farmer desks in every government office and Samajika Telangana to ensure the development of backward classes. Beyond this vision, she said her party would focus on issues that truly matter to the people.
But more than the promises, it is the perception that Kavitha is taking on her family’s party, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), that has drawn attention in Telangana’s political circles. The BRS leadership seems to share that concern. After Kavitha announced her party as ‘Telangana Rashtra Sena’, the BRS approached the Election Commission, which directed her not to use the name. She subsequently renamed it Telangana Rakshana Sena—still retaining the acronym TRS, much to the discomfort of the BRS leadership.
The clash over the party name reflects the strained relationship between the two sides. Many observers believe any progress made by Kavitha could directly weaken the BRS. When THE WEEK spoke to her to understand the reasons for Kavitha’s differences with her family and the rationale behind the new party, she emphasised significance of the party’s name.
“TRS was the party that drove the Telangana statehood movement; it gave us Telangana. I am very happy that our new party could get that name,” she said.
Not just the name, even Kavitha’s growing political assertiveness appears to have unsettled the BRS. She surprised many by winning the Vaddepally municipality in Jogulamba Gadwal district in February. Kavita’s candidates, who contested on All India Forward Bloc tickets, won eight of the municipality’s 10 wards. “We have won around 40 corporator and ward member seats in the recent municipal polls,” she said. She announced that state-, district- and mandal-level committees would be formed in the next three to four months.
BRS legislator and spokesperson Sravan Kumar Dasoju dismissed her claims. “By adding Gandhi to one’s name, nobody can become Mahatma Gandhi. Similarly, by invoking the KCR family or claiming to be TRS, Kavitha cannot achieve the desired impact,” he said.
He also questioned how she could distance herself from a government in which she had held influence for a decade. “She was one of the pillars of the TRS and later the BRS government. How can she now attribute all wrongs to the party without taking any responsibility?” he asked.
The BRS leadership was dominated by KCR, Kavitha’s brother K.T. Rama Rao, popularly known as KTR, and cousin T. Harish Rao. Kavitha maintains that the long-held perception that she and KTR were rivals for succession within the BRS is wrong.
So what prompted her to break with the party and her family? According to her, the rift began when she lost the Lok Sabha elections from Nizamabad in 2019. She requested the party leadership to review the loss, believing that some leaders had not worked hard for her victory. “However, the party did not feel the need as much as I did. Ever since, things have started sliding,” she said.
Things worsened with the liquor scam case. Kavitha says she did not receive the support she deserved. When KTR faced allegations related to the Formula E corruption case, the party rallied around him. When Harish Rao was summoned by the Justice P.C. Ghosh commission on the Kaleshwaram project issue, KTR visited him and extended solidarity. The BRS social media team actively defended them. “But in my case there was no such support,” Kavitha said. “When BJP social media wing circulated insulting memes placing a liquor bottle on my head, the BRS did not stand by me. Worse, even BRS-linked social media activists targeted me.”
Kavitha said prison life changed her perspective on life. “I don’t think there is any greater problem for a woman from a respected family than going to Tihar jail. After that, I felt the rest of my life was a bonus,” she remarked.
Initially, her criticism of the BRS focused on Harish Rao before expanding to KTR and KCR. The launch of her party marked a complete political separation from her family. Asked whether reconciliation remained possible, Kavitha replied that she would invite them to join her new party.
She said she always carved out an independent identity within the Telangana movement and later within the TRS and BRS. “I mostly worked with writers, singers, intellectuals and especially women,” she said. “With Telangana Jagruthi (a cultural organisation she founded), I brought women into the Telangana movement. Drawing inspiration from Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s Ganesh Chaturthi, I turned the Telangana floral festival Bathukamma into a movement in which lakhs of women participated.”
Public response to Kavitha’s meetings and rallies makes it evident that she is no longer politically marginal. “I wanted to remain among the people; that is why I started this party,” she said. “We will come to power in the next assembly elections.”
Kavitha believes her activism can generate public traction and media attention. Her agitation over the demolition of more than 700 houses in Vinoba Navodaya Bhoodan Colony in Velugumatla village near Khammam city drew significant attention. Officials claimed that residents lacked rights over Bhoodan Board land. Kavitha staged a sit-in and hunger strike in Khammam and, after being removed from the city, she undertook a three-day fast in Hyderabad. The pressure eventually forced officials to acknowledge that at least half of the affected families had legitimate claims to the land.
Her broader vision for the state is centred on two major promises: free education and universal health care. She believes that if people do not have to worry about education and health—like in Scandinavian countries—they would thrive in life.
Will her activism and political agenda translate into electoral success? Observers offer a mixed assessment. “People appreciate articulate young politicians, and Kavitha is one of them,” said political commentator Telakapalli Ravi. “But, as it is, the BRS itself is in trouble, and I don’t think she would benefit by dividing that dwindling constituency.”