The Bharat Rashtra Samithi led by Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is gearing up for a state-wide agitation in the event of the arrest of party MLC and his daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha by the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi liquor scam.
With the arrest of Hyderabad-based liquor dealer Arun Ramachandra Pillai in the scam on Tuesday, and the submission of his remand report in which Kavitha was named as Pillai’s benami, it was evident that it would be her turn to face the questioning by the ED and subsequent arrest.
As expected, Kavitha received summons from the ED to appear before the investigation agency in New Delhi on March 9.
She, however, wrote back to the ED seeking time till March 15, saying she would have to attend the dharna at Jantar Mantar and other prior engagements.
Sources, however, said the BRS MLC sought to buy time to make preparations for the state-wide agitations in the event of her arrest.
Soon after issuing a statement that she would cooperate with the agencies in the Delhi scam, she left for Pragati Bhavan to meet her father KCR to discuss the strategy.
According to sources, KCR told her that instructions had already been issued to all the BRS leaders and cadre across Telangana to launch a state-wide agitation.
Subsequently, he would plan a nation-wide movement against alleged witch-hunt by the Centre against the opposition party leaders.
Within hours of ED serving notices to Kavitha, there has been a flurry of statements from the BRS leaders including ministers and MLAs condemning the Centre for targeting Kavitha and Telangana.
“After building up the heat across the state, KCR might go in for early elections by raking up anti-BJP sentiment,” sources added.