Then TRS MP Vijayashanti’s reported meeting with senior Congress leaders in New Delhi before the 2014 Parliament elections was the last trigger which prompted the party leadership to suspend her.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The cycle of suspension has turned full circle in the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Tuesday with the party supremo and former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao directing the party’s Disciplinary Action Committee to suspend MLC and his daughter K. Kavitha for ‘anti-party activities’.
The BRS chief has withered such storm while running the party for the last 25 years whether it is anti-party activities, defection of legislators and seniors to rival parties and oft repeated speculation about the plans of former Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao.
But, the sibling rivalry between party working president K. T. Rama Rao and Ms. Kavitha has spilled over in the public domain causing concern for the beleaguered former CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who is already reeling under a shock after the State government decided to write to the Centre for a CBI probe into the Kaleshwaram project fiasco.
Today’s suspension bring backs memories of a similar action taken on August 1, 2013 when Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao decided to suspend TRS (now BRS) MP from Medak and actor M. Vijayashanti for indulging in anti-party activities. Interestingly, in both the instances, the party chief had taken the decision to send a strong message that indiscipline can not be tolerated. The other known instance of tough action was sacking of Deputy Chief Minister and Health Minister T. Rajaiah in 2015.
There are parallel to the president episode of Mr. Kavitha’s brazen revolt and that of Ms. Vijayashanti. Being an MP along with Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao to represent the then TRS party in Lok Sabha, Ms. Vijayashanti began to sound angry after reports suggested that she would be denied the ticket to contest the 2014 Parliament elections from Medak Lok Sabha constituency. Her reported meeting with senior Congress leaders in New Delhi was the last trigger. This prompted the party leadership to suspend her.
While leaders continued to get suspended and expelled from the party over a period of time, these two high profile disciplinary action became the talk of the town. Ms. Vijayashanti did not waste time and joined the Congress soon after but it is still not known what is in the mind of Ms. Kavitha after the shocking suspension.
Apart from the two notable suspensions, the party faced a crisis of sort soon after the 2004 Assembly elections after as many as 10 TRS (now BRS) MLAs defied the leadership and voted against the Party Whip during MLC elections. The Pink Party had won only 26 out of the 54 seats allotted to it as part of alliance with the Congress. A five-year battle led to the disqualification of three MLAs and six other rebel MLAs resignations being accepted by the then united AP Speaker K. R. Suresh Reddy. This outright rebellion had rattled Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao no end.
In the 2009 Assembly election, the party’s performance was miserable winning only 10 seats in alliance with the TDP. The Congress led by Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy had returned to power scraping through the majority. The death of YSR in a chopper crash on September 2, 2009 came as a breather for Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao, who re-ignited the separate Statehood movement and was successful in achieving his dream of Telangana.
The 2014 elections dramatically brought him to power and it was with vengeance and that his party poached the rival Congress and other party MLAs. The party’s strength rose from 63 to 90 with YSRCP, BSP, CPI and TDP Legislature parties merging in the TRS.
In 2018, BRS won a landslide with 88 seats and it did not feel like poaching rivals but still several Congress MLAs switched their loyalties. But, the tide turned against Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao when his party lost the 2023 Assembly elections and he had to witness the defection of as many as 10 MLAs to the ruling Congress. The Telangana Assembly Speaker is now sending notices to the defectors after Supreme Court directed the former to take concrete action.
The Justice PC Ghosh Commission of Inquiry report indicting Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr. Harish Rao has rattled the leadership but both got some reprieve in the form of High Court giving them some breather that no adverse action should be taken.
Party leaders are exuding confidence that facing crisis and challenges was nothing new for Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao and would overcome it in his own style.
Published – September 02, 2025 09:26 pm is
