Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and former Telangana minister KT Rama Rao on Saturday said there was no significance to the letter written by his sister and MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha to their father and party president K Chandrasekhar Rao and asserted that internal party matters should be discussed within the party fora instead of speaking out in public.

On Friday night, Kavitha admitted having written the letter to KCR, but she defended the points raised by her. She said she was only reflecting the feelings of the ordinary party workers.

“It is no big deal. In BRS, everybody is a worker and all are equal. Our party has a strong democratic culture and writing letters to KCR is nothing new. Anyone can write to KCR on any issue,” KTR said, while speaking to reporters at the party office Telangana Bhavan.

He pointed out that even during the recent public meeting of the BRS near Warangal on the occasion of party’s silver jubilee, several leaders had sent notes suggesting the party president to highlight some issues. “The party leadership received several letters from leaders even during the Parliament elections,” he pointed out.

He, however, said it would be better if internal matters were discussed internally within the party and not aired publicly. On Kavitha’s allegation that there were coverts in the BRS, he said: “Every party has covert actors. When the time comes, such covert players are exposed.”

The BRS working president, however, evaded answers to questions on the issues raised by Kavitha in her letter, including the party’s soft stand towards the Bharatiya Janata Party, lack of reference to the OBCs in KCR’s speech and inaccessibility of the party leadership to the leaders and cadre.

“People are not interested in all these issues and we are raising more important issues than that,” he said.

Meanwhile, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee official spokesman Ch Dayakar said KTR had no courage to respond to the letter written by his own sister, pointing out several crucial issues. “Kavitha’s statements that KCR is surrounded by corrupt individuals and that the party has lost connect with the people are entirely true,” he said.

Dayakar alleged that in his eagerness to gain absolute control over the party, KTR has sidelined all senior leaders. “He couldn’t even tolerate his own sister being active in the party,” he criticised, adding that the ongoing crisis in the BRS was only due to KTR’s leadership style and arrogance.