K Kavitha launches Telangana Rashtra Sena months after she resigned from BRS

Former Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha on Saturday launched her party Telangana Rashtra Sena.

The name of the new party echoes the former name of Bharath Rashtra Samithi, which was earlier called Telangana Rashtra Samithi.

Kavitha’s announcement came months after she resigned from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and stepped down as a member of the Telangana Legislative Council on September 3, a day after she was suspended by her father and party chief K Chandrashekar Rao for alleged anti-party activities.

In January, Kavitha announced that her outfit, Telangana Jagruthi, would emerge as a political party and contest the next Assembly elections in the state.

Elections in the state are likely to be held either in 2028 or 2029. Telangana Jagruthi was a non-profit cultural and social organisation founded by Kavitha in 2006, which initially worked to promote Telangana’s identity during the statehood movement.

Launching the party at an event on the outskirts of Hyderabad, Kavitha criticised the ruling Congress in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bharat Rashtra Samiti, alleging that all three parties were plagued by corruption, favouritism and “family rule”, The New Indian Express reported.

She also alleged that Rao was no longer the leader who spearheaded the struggle for a separate Telangana, The Hindu reported.

“The KCR we saw during the Telangana movement is no longer there,” the newspaper quoted her as saying. Kavitha said that Rao’s absence from active public engagement reflected this transformation.

The former Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader also accused the Congress government led by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy of becoming increasingly authoritarian. She said that the state was “being crushed” under its rule.

Kavitha also claimed that she was expelled from the Bharat Rashtra Samiti for raising questions about alleged corruption in the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project.

“…those who looted in its name continue to surround Mr KCR,” The Hindu quoted her as saying.

Kavitha had been suspended a day after she accused her cousins, former minister T Harish Rao and ex-MP J Santosh Rao, of amassing assets while making K Chandrashekar Rao a “scapegoat” in the alleged Kaleshwaram project scam.