New Delhi: Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K. Kavitha hit out at the Congress Thursday for trying to hog the Opposition space, and undermining other regional parties.
She said the Congress had a habit of rubbishing any party vocal against the BJP as its “B or C Team”.
“But if you see the state of the Congress today, it is no more than a regional party. They are not a national party anymore,” Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter told the media in Delhi Thursday.
She has flown in to take part in a peaceful hunger strike at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on 10 March, joining representatives of 17 other parties in their demand for the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament.
Kavitha said the Congress should come out of its illusions and think of strengthening the party in the interest of the country, and not only its own. “They should align with strong regional parties. If the Congress truly wants to defeat the BJP in 2024, they should shed their arrogance. They should become a team player. They should work with all parties. Then they will know who is the BJP’s A team or B team,” Kavitha said.
The south leader, who is in-charge of taking the BRS national, will face the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 11 March while it probes her possible involvement in the Delhi liquor policy scam. The ED had initially summoned her on 9 March, a day ahead of the hunger strike.
Probe agencies have accused Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of “tweaking” its 2021-22 excise policy to grant liquor licences to the “South Lobby” of which Kavitha is allegedly a member.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on 26 February, accusing him of granting liquor licences to certain traders in exchange for bribes.
The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that the “South Group”— comprising BRS legislator K. Kavitha, top Hyderabad businessman Sarath Chandra Reddy and YSR Congress MP Magunta Srinivasula Reddy – paid kickbacks of Rs 100 crore to the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government to gain control over the capital’s liquor business.
On Thursday, Kavitha told the media that the ED did not acquiesce to her request that she meet them on 16 March instead of the 9th. “I don’t know why they are in such a hurry, so I agreed to meet them on 11 March,” she said, adding, “When an agency wants to interrogate a woman, she has a fundamental right that it be done in her home. So I requested ED to come to my house but they said I would have to go to them.”
On Wednesday, hours after the ED summons, Kavitha issued a statement assuring the probe agency of her full cooperation, but also warned the Centre that such “tactics of intimidation… would not deter us”.
Under the leadership of Chandrashekar, she said in her statement, “… we will continue to fight to expose your failures & raise voice for a brighter and better future for India”.
“Let me also remind the power mongers in Delhi that Telangana has never and will never bow before the oppressive anti-people regime. We will fearlessly and fiercely fight for the rights of the people,” she added.
Also read: Excise policy case: BRS MLC K Kavitha reaches Delhi for questioning