Hyderabad, Dec 27 (IANS) The year 2025 has been full of challenges for Telangana’s main opposition party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), with its top leaders facing probe into the alleged corruption allegations.

However, the exit of K. Kavitha from BRS after a rift within the family of party supremo and former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) came into the open, triggering the biggest crisis for the party since losing power to Congress in 2023.

The open revolt by K. Kavitha, KCR’s daughter, by targeting his close aide and nephew T. Harish Rao and others after her letter surfaced in public, her suspension from the party and her subsequent resignation triggered tremors in political circles.

This was the first open challenge to KCR, who had maintained a vice-like grip on the party since floating it in 2001 to revive the movement for statehood to Telangana.

Interestingly, the crisis for BRS erupted days after it celebrated its silver jubilee with a mammoth public meeting in Warangal district on April 28.

Launching a scathing attack on the Congress government over unkept promises, KCR vowed to carry on the fight on behalf of the people and exuded confidence that BRS will return to power in Telangana. This was KCR’s first public appearance after his party’s humiliating defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, and sent the signal that under his leadership, the BRS will bounce back.

However, a few days later, the BRS faced a crisis from an unexpected quarter. An internal letter written by Kavitha to KCR, flagging certain issues, surfaced online, triggering a storm.

Kavitha blamed those around KCR for leaking the letter. “KCR is a god who is surrounded by some devils,” she said.

Her initial target was her cousin and former Rajya Sabha member J. Santosh Kumar. A few days later, she alleged that a section of the BRS leaders was responsible for her defeat in Nizamabad in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

She also alleged that attempts were being made to hand over the BRS to the BJP. Claiming that the proposal to merge the BRS with the BJP came when she was in jail in the Delhi liquor policy case, Kavitha said she strongly opposed the proposal.

Her remark that KCR alone is her leader was seen as an indirect attack on her brother and BRS Working President K.T. Rama Rao (KTR), who is seen by many in the party as KCR’s heir apparent.

The former MP also alleged that attempts are being made to force her to distance herself from her family and the BRS. Kavitha caused embarrassment to the BRS by organising public protests over various issues under the banner of Telangana Jagruthi, a cultural organisation she founded during the Telangana movement.

The first and only woman politician from the KCR family, Kavitha, was furious when she was ousted as the Honourary President of Telangana Boggu Gani Karmika Sangham (TBGKS), a trade union of coal mine workers which she had been leading for the last decade.

She criticised the election of former Minister Koppula Eashwar as the Honourary President of TBGKS and questioned the validity of the election held at the BRS office, Telangana Bhavan.

The development in the last week of August came when she was on a personal visit to the United States. On her return on September 1, Kavitha launched an open attack on her cousin and former Minister T. Harish Rao, another cousin and former MP J. Santosh Kumar, and former MP Megha Krishna Reddy, blaming them for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe ordered against KCR for alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project.

A few hours after Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy announced in the Assembly that the CBI will probe the alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram project built during the BRS government. K. Kavitha blamed Harish Rao, Santosh Kumar and Megha Krishna Reddy for KCR being ‘framed’ in the P. C. Ghose Commission inquiry in the Kaleshwaram project.

She alleged that they did all the ‘bad things’ to tarnish the image of KCR. She even claimed that Harish Rao’s removal as Telangana’s Irrigation Minister during the second term of the BRS was a consequence of his alleged role in the Kaleshwaram irregularities.

Kavitha’s sensational comments, even while defending her father, were seen as a ‘confession’ when KCR and Harish Rao had approached the High Court, seeking to quash the Ghose Commission report, which had indicted them.

Acting swiftly, KCR suspended Kavitha from the party for anti-party activities. The next day, she resigned from BRS and also quit as a Member of the Legislative Council. Kavitha, who is currently on a four-month-long mass contact tour of the state, has announced that Telangana Jagruthi would contest the 2029 elections.

K. Kavitha’s episode has given ammunition to the Congress and the BJP to target BRS and KCR. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy alleged that the rift in the KCR family was over ‘sharing the spoils’ among family members.

Revanth Reddy also kept the pressure on KCR, KTR and Harish Rao with a series of inquiries against them. After a marathon debate in the Assembly over the Ghose Commission report, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy announced the decision to hand over to the CBI the case relating to alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram project.

He accused the then CM KCR, and then Irrigation Minister Harish Rao looted public funds to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore while the then state Finance Minister Eatala Rajender (who is now in the BJP) sat silently.

The Ghose Commission held KCR directly and vicariously accountable for the irregularities and the illegalities in planning, construction, completion, operation and maintenance of three barrages. It also indicted many officials, including IAS officers and engineers.

Last month, Governor Jishnu Dev Varma gave his nod to prosecute KTR in the Formula E race case. This came two months after the state government sent the file to the Governor seeking his permission to prosecute the former Minister in the case relating to alleged misuse of Rs 54.88 crore public funds.

This will pave the way for the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to file the charge sheet. It was in September that the ACB submitted its report and, through the state government, sought the Governor’s sanction to prosecute KTR, senior IAS officer Arvind Kumar, and others.

After nine months of probe into the alleged irregularities in hosting the Formula E race in Hyderabad during the previous BRS regime, the ACB had submitted its report to the state government. KTR has been accused of receiving Rs 44 crore in the form of an electoral bond from a sponsorship company as a quid pro quo for granting it rights to organise the race.

The ACB in December last year booked a case against KTR, Municipal Administration and Urban Development’s former Special Chief Secretary Arvind Kumar, and the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority’s (HMDA) former Chief Engineer B.L.N. Reddy for alleged Rs 54.88 crore irregularities in the Formula E deal.

The former Minister, who was questioned by the ACB four times, dismissed the Formula E case as a “bogus case”. KTR said he had made every effort to bring the Formula E race to Hyderabad. He admitted that it was he who had directed the release of Rs 46 crore from the government, but clarified that the funds had been deposited directly into the designated account.

“Not a single rupee has been misused. Every rupee is accounted for. Where then is the corruption?” he asked.

As the year is drawing to a close, the Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the alleged phone tapping during the BRS rule, is reportedly planning to summon KCR and KTR. They are likely to be issued notices to appear before the SIT.

The BRS has called this a diversion tactic by the Congress government, as KCR has announced a mass movement against it over the failure to protect the state’s interests in Krishna and Godavari river waters.

Phones of Congress and BJP leaders, businessmen, celebrities, journalists, members of civil society and even judges were allegedly tapped when BRS was in power from 2014 to 2023.

Former Chief of Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) T. Prabhakar Rao, who is the key accused in the case, is currently in the custody of SIT.

Prabhakar Rao has been accused of orchestrating the illegal surveillance of several prominent individuals during the BRS rule. He had allegedly constituted a special team in the SIB to tap the phones of those working against the BRS government.

After the defeat of the BRS in the 2023 elections, Prabhakar Rao resigned from his post. He had left for the US just before the case was registered against him.

The Supreme Court, on May 29, 2025, directed authorities to arrange an emergency travel document to enable Prabhakar Rao to return.

As per an undertaking given to the Supreme Court, Prabhakar Rao returned to India on June 8.

The phone-taping allegations came to light in March 2024 with the arrest of former Deputy Superintendent of Police D. Praneeth Rao following a complaint from his superior. The Police later also arrested retired Deputy Commissioner of Police P. Radha Kishan Rao and Additional Superintendents of Police N Bhujanga Rao and M. Thirupathanna.

The year 2025 also saw BRS suffering another electoral defeat. The party failed to retain the Jubilee Hills Assembly seat, which had fallen vacant following the death of sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath. In the by-election, Congress wrested the seat with a comfortable margin. The BRS fought the by-election under the leadership of KTR, while Congress went all out with Chief Minister Revanth Reddy himself spearheading the campaign.

The BRS, however, has given a tough fight to Congress in the Gram Panchayat elections held this month. Out of a total of 12,727 Gram Panchayats, BRS-backed candidates won 3,519 Gram Panchayats (27.64 per cent).

The BRS claimed that the Gram Panchayat results show strong anti-incumbency. KTR called it the beginning of the Congress’s downfall in Telangana.

The BRS is continuing its legal fight to seek the disqualification of its 10 MLAs who had switched loyalties to Congress last year. After the Supreme Court’s intervention, Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar conducted a hearing on the petitions for the disqualification of eight MLAs and rejected the petitions in the case of five MLAs.

While deciding to challenge the Speaker’s decision in court, the BRS has also thrown a challenge to the ruling Congress to make the turncoat MLAs resign and face a by-election.

–IANS

ms/khz/skp