BRS’ Kavitha slams Centre for refusal to hand over bodies of Maoists to families 

BRS MLC K Kavitha on Friday flayed the Centre for refusing to hand over the bodies of top Maoist leader Nambala Keshav Rao and other cadres, who were killed in a recent encounter in Chhattisgarh, to their families.

Addressing reporters at Mancherial, she said, “The BJP does not show the culture of handing over bodies for funeral rites.” Kavitha charged the NDA government with continuing the “violence” through anti-Maoist operations, despite demands from the BRS to halt them.

She recalled BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao’s appeal on April 28 to the Centre to stop ‘operation Kagar’, citing alleged killings of tribals and youth in these operations.

The last rites of top Maoist leader Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, and seven other cadres killed in an encounter in Chhattisgarh last week were performed by the authorities on May 26. They were cremated in Narayanpur in Chattisgarh.

After visiting the family members of a journalist who died recently, the BRS leader also called the ruling Congress “anti-Dalit”.

According to Kavitha, Congress MP from Peddapalle (SC) constituency Vamsi Krishna Gaddam had felt insulted over not being invited to the recent Saraswati river ‘pushkaralu’ (dedicated to worshipping the river) in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district.

CM Revanth Reddy had earlier humiliated his deputy Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, a Dalit leader, at Lord Narasimha temple at Yadagirigutta.

On BRS’ internal matters, she has alleged that some forces have tried and are trying to merge the former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao-led party with the BJP.

In a veiled attack on her brother and BRS Working President K T Rama Rao, she claimed that the merger (proposal was brought to her when she was in prison in the national capital in a money laundering case—Delhi Liquor Police scam case—last year), which she rejected outright.

Responding to Kavitha’s comments, BJP MP M Raghunandan Rao on Friday wondered why should the BJP merge or seek an alliance with BRS.

Asserting that BJP is growing on its own in Telangana, he said the party had won four Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and eight in 2024.