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Published Jun 02, 2025 | 6:52 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 02, 2025 | 6:52 PM
K Chandrashekar Rao remained in his farmhouse, while KT Rama Rao celebrated the Formation Day in Dallas, US. T Harish Rao led the celebration at Telangana Bhavan, while K Kavitha was at her Telangana Jagruthi office.
Synopsis: BRS celebration of the Telangana Formation Day was fragmented even as K Chandrashekar Rao chose to remain confined to his farmhouse. Is it a sign of the party’s future?
As Telangana completes 11 years of attaining statehood, there’s something rather telling about this year’s State Formation Day celebrations.
While the Congress is in full festival mode, deploying 33 leaders across districts in a choreographed show of strength, the BRS, a party that links itself heavily to the statehood, is keeping it low-key.
The BRS has long marketed former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao as the “Founding Father” of Telangana. But for someone cast in bronze in the state’s political imagination, his absence is glaring on the occasion.
Incidentally, 2025 marks the second year that KCR has opted out of any public appearance during the Formation Day celebrations. Instead, he is reportedly remaining at his now-famous farmhouse in Erravelli—a location which is beginning to look like a place of retirement as KCR continues to fade away from public appearances.
While KCR chose to remain confined to the farmhouse, heir-apparent KT Rama Rao celebrated the occasion overseas. He celebrated the Telangana Formation Day at Dallas, Texas, on 1 June local time. Calling the place ‘Dallaspuram,’ he delivered an emotional speech regarding the state’s journey from the struggle till the BRS lost power.
With father and son being away from the celebrations at home, that leaves T Harish Rao and K Kavitha, the remaining headliners, to fill the gap. However, while Harish Rao chose to keep the celebration alive at the party headquarters, Telangana Bhavan, Kavitha had something else in her mind.
Kavitha chose to celebrate the occasion at the Telangana Jagruthi office instead of Telangana Bhavan, both at Banjara Hills. She is asserting herself at a time when news of internal disturbances within the party is making the rounds. Just recently, her letter to KCR made the news, hinting that there was a “conspiracy” to merge the party with the BJP.
In the same letter, she also expressed her disappointment that KCR had not visited her during her imprisonment in the Delhi Excise Case.
It remains to be seen if the BRS’s fragmented celebrations are just a happenstance or a manifestation of the multipolar forces in the party going forward.
