Kavitha lies low after defeat

TRS leader stays off politics, keeps cadre guessing

After her defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, former MP K. Kavitha has been less involved in politics.

Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) cadres, especially those from Nizamabad and Karimnagar are expecting her to take an active role in the election campaigns to urban local bodies, but she has not made any announcement so far after returning from a visit to the United States on January 6.

After the Lok Sabha elections, she appeared in public on only two occasions, one of them being the Mahankali Bonalu festival in Secunderabad.

She had won the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat in 2014, defeating the Congress nominee Madhu Yashki Goud, but was defeated in the 2019 elections by BJP candidate Arvind Dharmapuri, son of D. Srinivas, a senior politician of the state and the TRS’ Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament. Sources in the TRS disclosed that the party was thinking of putting Ms Kavitha in the forefront of the elections in Nizamabad, expecting her to do well given the infighting between the sitting MP Arvind Dharmapuri and other BJP leaders and also given the resentment turmeric farmers feel against Mr Dharmapuri for making promises he has not kept.

However, so far there is no sign from her that she wants to be involved.

During a review of the municipal elections held by TRS working president K.T. Rama Rao on Saturday, Jagtial MLA Sanjay Kumar told the media informally that the absence of Ms Kavitha is a loss to the ongoing campaign.

He said there is support for her taking playing a leading role in the municipal elections to be held later this month.