Dissident BRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha has alleged a conspiracy against her within the party after former minister Koppula Eshwar replaced her as the honorary president of the workers’ union affiliated to the BRS at Singareni Collieries.
Kavitha is currently in the US on a personal visit. Yesterday, Kopula Eshwar was elected as the honorary president of the Telangana Boggu Gani Karmika Sangham, a move that could not have been done without the blessings of the party’s working president, KT Rama Rao and BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao. It is indicative of the further widening rift between the Kalvakuntla family and the BRS.
Meanwhile, Kavitha wrote an open letter, after her removal as the president of the workers’ union, a post she had held for ten long years. She alleged that she was being harassed. “These conspirators are harassing me in various ways. During my trip to America, the TBGKS Central Committee held a meeting violating labour laws and announced a new honorary president had been elected,” Kavitha alleged in her letter.
The BRS MLC congratulated the new president but also accused the conspirators of trying to damage the unity of workers. “After the Congress came to power in Telangana, while I was fighting for the welfare of Singareni workers, some people are conspiring against me. Although there is no personal loss to me from such conspiracies, the goal of some seems to be to remove me, who is working for the welfare of the workers and to damage their unity,“ she said in her letter.
Kavitha also listed out various welfare activities taken up by her for the coal miners when BRS was in power. She also referred to the leaked letter she had written to her father, providing feedback on the situation on the ground, pointing out that the conspirators were still active.
After her letter was leaked and the feud came to the forefront, Kavitha had limited herself to the activities of Telangana Jagruthi, a cultural organisation founded by her. This was the first punitive action taken by the party against her as she criticised other senior leaders and her brother KT Rama Rao, who is the party’s working president. Although her father had not chastised her in public so far, her removal from the post of president of the trade union was a snub for her dissidence.