After legislators Dr T Rajaiah and Kadiam Srihari, Minister Satyavathi Rathod and MLA DS Redya Naik are now going at each other's jugular.
Dornkal happens to be the home constituency of both Redya Naik and Satyavathi Rathod. (Twitter)
At a crucial time, when all the political parties in Telangana are gearing up for the state Assembly elections scheduled in December, all does not seem well in the ruling BRS. For the top leadership, the internal squabbles are becoming unmanageable.
After legislators Dr T Rajaiah and Kadiam Srihari, who were deputy chief ministers at different times in K Chandrashekar Rao’s Cabinet, crossed swords in the Warangal district, Tribal Welfare Minister Satyavathi Rathod and Dornkal MLA DS Redya Naik are now at each other’s jugular.
On Wednesday, 12 July, the supporters of the two groups clashed in Bangya Thanda in Kuravi mandal when Redya Naik went there to inaugurate a road.
Protesting against his visit and accusing him of not doing anything to improve the conditions in the area in his capacity as an MLA, the minister’s supporters blocked his way. It led to a clash resulting in simple injuries, necessitating the police to enter the scene.
The rivalry between the two leaders is well-known in the Mahabubabad district. Satyavathi Rathod joined the BRS in 2013, after sensing that the TDP’s days were numbered.
She fought the 2014 election on the BRS ticket but Redya Naik, who contested on a Congress ticket, won the election. Later, he also joined the BRS.
Naik is a six-time MLA, while Rathod won only once from Dornakal in 2009 on the TDP ticket by defeating him.
After she lost again in 2014, she was taken into the Legislative Council by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
She later became a minister for tribal welfare. In 2018, KCR re-nominated Redya Naik and took Satyavathi Rathod into his Cabinet in 2019.
Now Naik and Satyavathi Rathod are eyeing the same Dornkal seat but the BRS seems to be favouring Naik’s daughter and Mahabubabad MP M Kavitha for the seat, even though Naik wants to contest himself.
Kavitha is understood to be confident that she would get the ticket as she had indications from the party to this effect. But Naik too is confident that KCR would field him once again.
More than his daughter, he would have to watch out for the black swan — Satyavathi Rathod — who wants to contest from Dornakal this time.
She has been doing everything in her power to please KCR so that she gets the ticket. She has been walking barefoot and said that she would continue to do so till KCR became the chief minister for the third time.
She had the chief minister’s initials tattooed on her arm at an event in Hyderabad. She keeps saying that if the party asks her, she would contest from Dornakal.
But Redya Naik sees a threat in her. Keeping her in mind, he said at an Aathmeeya sammelan, the party’s outreach programme, in Kuravi in Mahabubabad district in April this year that there were several wreckers within the party who were out to harm his interests.
He also said a deep-rooted conspiracy was underway to defeat him in the next elections by his own party men.
He had said: “The party is riven with self-centred leaders who are minting money using the image of the party. They want to continue in positions of power perpetually.”
He went to the extent of saying that his adversaries within his party were “waiting for him to die”.
“These thieves masquerading as party loyalists should be taught a lesson,” he had said.
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