It's rather unusual to see Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao remain completely silent when his daughter and MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha was thrown behind bars in connection with the Delhi liquor scam.
It's been nearly a month since Kavitha was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate. At the time of her arrest, her brother K T Rama Rao and cousin T Harish Rao attempted to create some commotion and condemn the arrest.
However, there was no statement or even a tweet from KCR decrying his daughter’s arrest. It was only after Aam Admi Party chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested that the BRS president issued a statement condemning his arrest, with only a passing reference to Kavitha’s arrest.
Even KTR and Harish Rao have refrained from further commenting on Kavitha’s questioning by the ED authorities, despite her waging a lone legal battle in Delhi.
She made a desperate attempt to obtain interim bail to provide moral support to her son, who is sitting for annual examinations, but none of her family members came to her rescue.
This is rather surprising for the BRS leaders and cadre as they were expecting KCR and his family members to lead a large delegation of party workers to New Delhi to stage a dharna in protest against the harassment.
Instead, the party leaders, including KCR, KTR, and Harish Rao, are occupied with attending party meetings and election rallies. What is more surprising is that KCR and his family members celebrated the Ugadi festival while Kavitha languished in a Delhi jail.
While the BRS leaders close to KCR claim he is maintaining a strategic silence, analysts suggest that KCR might be afraid of openly confronting the BJP national leadership on the Kavitha issue, lest it becomes more complicated.
In any case, KCR’s silence has sent a wrong signal to the party cadres, indicating that he doesn’t hesitate to abandon even his own family members to protect his own interests and political agenda.