Analysis: India's Big Political Families And Their Bitter Feuds

NDTV

2 days ago

New Delhi:
Every regional political party in India, barring one or two notable exceptions like the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu, are a family enterprise. Succession battles put father against son, brother against brother or sisters or cousins. It's the rule and not the exception.
Two such battles are currently playing out in South Indian politics - one in the Bharatiya Rahstriya Samiti (BRS) between the party patriarch K Chandrashekar Rao's daughter K Kavitha and son KT Rama Rao, the other between the founder of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) in Tamil Nadu, Dr S Ramadoss, and his son Dr Anbumani Ramadoss.
These are both just the latest in a long list of bitter family, political soap operas that have infested Indian politics. It's more pronounced in the southern states simply because of the power of the regional forces. And, the battles always have strong personal, financial and emotional dimensions apart from the political.
The rift in the BRS between former Chief Minister and party patriarch K Chandrashekar Rao's son KT Rama Rao and daughter K Kavitha is an open secret. It was waiting to explode, especially after the BRS's defeat in the 2023 Assembly elections, which was followed by the mighty Chandrashekar Rao's retreat into silence and keeping himself away from the public glare.
Turn back time, and Chandrashekar Rao looked frail lying in a hospital bed in Hyderabad in December 2009, when I first met him. He had begun a fast unto death for Telangana on November 29, 2009, and when reporters arrived to meet him, it was his daughter K Kavitha who was attending to him and granting access. Her brother KT Rama Rao (KTR) was a first-time MLA by then. He had returned from the US and did not sound much like a politician, more like a sophisticated corporate voice.
On December 9, in a midnight announcement, the Congress buckled to the KCR fast and made a knee-jerk announcement of its agreement to split united Andhra Pradesh and carve out Telangana. KCR had catapulted to fame, but the lobbying and bitter battle in the Congress over the decision continued in Delhi till 2014, when the bifurcation was finally implemented, much to the Congress's peril.
Between 2010 and 2014, both Kavitha and KTR were actively building their profile. KTR, as the MLA, was firmly becoming the face of the party in the national media during the bitter and hectic campaign for Telangana. Kavitha was building her political and business network. She was spearheading the Bathukamma festival, a powerful cultural event for the state's identity.
Harish Rao, KCR's nephew, much older than the brother and sister, was the long-time close confidant of the patriarch, but it was clear by 2014 that both the son and the daughter were taking centre stage. Harish seemed to have gravitated towards KTR.
A sense of unease between the brother and sister was palpable, and the friction intensified with the party enjoying brute power. Kavitha had become a Member of Parliament from Nizamabad in 2014, and KTR a minister in KCR's government after the BRS swept the polls in the wake of the formation of Telangana in 2014, decimating the Congress.
Kavitha furthered her business and political network in Delhi, and it was an open secret that brother and sister had their own power play, flexing their muscles. The BRS was at the peak of its power during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls - it had just swept an assembly poll in 2018 - when K Kavitha was defeated in Nizamabad - this, she believes, was internal sabotage against her.
While she was made an MLC, she was arrested in the Delhi Liquor scam and was out in the cold. KTR had become the categorical number two in the state cabinet and seemed invincible. Then came the 2023 defeat for the BRS - a shock to KTR. Even during the 2023 campaign, one could sense Kavitha's unease at being sideline,d and she may not have been most excited for a BRS win.
Till the defeat, KCR was the towering figure, but he was inaccessible, and Ram was playing point. Post the defeat, KCR has receded into silence, and it seemed clear that Kavitha wanted to become as much a face of the BRS opposition as KTR. She would not accept KTR as the leader.
She has now openly made accusations, hitting out at her brother for plotting against her and even for merging the BRS with the BJP. The divisions in the family have been out in the open and are deeply personal. What is next is not clear, but Kavitha has a recent precedent in her own state's patriarchal landscape.
Former Congress Chief Minister YS Rajashekar Reddy's son YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and daughter YS Sharmila have had an ugly split. While Sharmila was not a political face at all and stood firmly with Jagan after their father's demise, the rift with her brother began after the YSRCP swept to power in Andhra Pradesh in 2019.
Like in most family disputes, the battle was not merely political. There were strong personal, emotional and financial layers to it.
After she left the YSRCP and joined the Congress in 2024, Sharmila made accusations against her brother and her cousin Avinash Reddy - the Member of Parliament from Kadappa - in the 2019 murder of her uncle YS Vivekananda Reddy. There have also been bitter exchanges over the transfer of shares in a family-owned power company.
The YSRCP was routed in the 2024 assembly elections, and the road ahead for the brother and the sister does not seem clear. Observers say too much water has flowed under the bridge.
Whatever the reasons, the personal becomes political. Like in the case of the PMK, where former union cabinet minister Dr Anbumani Ramadass is fighting his father and founder of the party Dr Ramadass. Ramadass Sr even declared that it was a "mistake" to have made his son a cabinet minister in the first UPA government - Anbumani was the union health minister between 2004 and 09.
Those close to the family say that apart from some political differences, a property dispute within the family and some bitter personal exchanges could have led to the public spat. Anbumani was the categorically chosen heir to the PMK. The father and founder was the one who groomed his son to be the heir, but the party's fortunes have been sagging over the last 15 years.
Once a brute ally, the PMK had jumped between the AIADMK and DMK during the late 1990s to 2009 as it had a strong, transferable OBC Vanniyar caste vote base. However, post-2009, both PMK and DMK have been on the losing side and have since been an NDA ally in the state. It may still have a residual caste vote, but it's far from its powerful history.
Will the father and son battle completely eliminate a struggling political force in the state? It is threatening to and just ahead of the 2026 assembly elections, the party finds itself in a difficult position.
Whether it is the BRS or the PMK, succession battles and power struggles are part of the game in political parties. But when it's a family-run party, the battle gets intensely personal with multiple intrigues, layers and dimensions involved.
The DMK and Chief Minister MK Stalin in Tamil Nadu had to fight their battles in a large family. Though he has been the categorical leader in the last decade, there was a challenge from his older brother MK Azhagiri in the mid 2000s that he had decisively dealt with.
Even today, there are murmurs of friction in the family over the choice of Stalin's son Udayanidhi as the heir apparent. His sister and DMK Parliamentary party leader Kanimozhi Karunanidhi is a strong force in the party, and how the dynamics will play out in the future will be closely watched.
Ultimately, family and dynasty politics are an uncomfortable political reality in India; in some cases, it has led to the decimation of strong political forces. But there always seems to be a family story at play in the political soap opera.