No political party that has aligned with the BJP has done well, cautioned BRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha on Friday, asserting that she will continue to oppose any efforts to merge her party with the saffron party in Telangana. Kavitha’s claims have found support from an unexpected quarter, with BJP’s disgruntled MLA T Raja Singh taking a swipe at the party’s senior leaders, accusing them of colluding with the BRS.

Reiterating her claims about talks of BRS’s merger with the BJP, Kalvakuntla Kavitha said, “I don’t have any personal agenda. I only want to save my party from being merged with the BJP. No party that has allied with the BJP has done well.” She added that the offer was first made to her when she was in jail in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case, and that accepting it would have meant admitting her guilt. “As long as I am in the BRS, I will not let the merger with the BJP happen,” she asserted. Kavitha once again demanded that those individuals responsible for leaking her letter to party supremo K Chandrsekhar Rao should be identified and action taken against them. She rued that she had got an opportunity to meet her father but could not make it. The BRS MLC also attacked the BJP for Operation Kagar, alleging it had unleashed a genocide.

Advertisement

Meanwhile, BJP MP from Medak, M Raghunandan Rao, wondered why Kavitha was indulging in informal chats with the media instead of openly speaking about these issues in a press conference. He also demanded action against social media handles and YouTube channels that Kavitha had said were “paid artists” spreading canards against her. He said, “Thieves are paying other thieves to write news and then posting it on YouTube channels in the morning. The Chief Minister must know who the paid artists mentioned by Kavitha are, and cases should be filed against all of them. They should be jailed.”

The BJP was also left red-faced by its disgruntled MLA, T Raja Singh. He corroborated Kavitha’s allegations, saying, “Had the big package deal worked out, our leaders would have agreed to the BRS-BJP merger. Such a scenario would have given the BRS freedom to select even the BJP candidates to contest in the next elections.” He claimed that this had happened in past elections as well and that was the reason why the BJP could not form a government in the state. On Friday, Singh accused BJP leaders of targeting him after his statement and said it had actually begun from Karimnagar, pointing fingers at Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who is the MP from the same seat.