Family and dynasty politics are an uncomfortable political reality in India; in some cases, it has led to the decimation of strong political forces.
Every regional political party in India, barring one or two notable exceptions like the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu, are a family enterprise. Succession battles put father against son, brother against brother or sisters or cousins. It’s the rule and not the exception.
Two such battles are currently playing out in South Indian politics – one in the Bharatiya Rahstriya Samiti (BRS) between the party patriarch K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha and son KT Rama Rao, the other between the founder of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) in Tamil Nadu, Dr S Ramadoss, and his son Dr Anbumani Ramadoss.
These are both just the latest in a long list of bitter family, political soap operas that have infested Indian politics. It’s more pronounced in the southern states simply because of the power of the regional forces. And, the battles always have strong personal, financial and emotional dimensions apart from the political.
The rift in the BRS between former Chief Minister and party patriarch K Chandrashekar Rao’s son KT Rama Rao and daughter K Kavitha is an open secret. It was waiting to explode, especially after the BRS’s defeat in the 2023 Assembly elections, which was followed by the mighty Chandrashekar Rao’s retreat into silence and keeping himself away from the public glare.
Turn back time, and Chandrashekar Rao looked frail lying in a hospital bed in Hyderabad in December 2009, when I first met him. He had begun a fast unto death for Telangana on November 29, 2009, and when reporters arrived to meet him, it was his daughter K Kavitha who was attending to him and granting access. Her brother KT Rama Rao (KTR) was a first-time MLA by then. He had returned from the US and did not sound much like a politician, more like a sophisticated corporate voice.
On December 9, in a midnight announcement, the Congress buckled to the KCR fast and made a knee-jerk announcement of its agreement to split united Andhra Pradesh and carve out Telangana. KCR had catapulted to fame, but the lobbying and bitter battle in the Congress over the decision continued in Delhi till 2014, when the bifurcation was finally implemented, much to the Congress’s peril.
Between 2010 and 2014, both Kavitha and KTR were actively building their profile. KTR, as the MLA, was firmly becoming the face of the party in the national media during the bitter and hectic campaign for Telangana. Kavitha was building her political and business network. She was spearheading the Bathukamma festival, a powerful cultural event for the state’s identity.
Leave a Reply