New Delhi: Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLC and Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao's daughter K Kavitha is leading a one-day hunger strike in the national capital seeking the introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill in the current Budget session of Parliament.


Several leaders including CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury have joined her in the protest.






Among other leaders, AAP's Sanjay Singh and Chitra Sarwara, a Shiv Sena delegation, Akali Dal leader Naresh Gujral, PDP's Anjum Javed Mirza, NC's Dr. Shami Firdous, TMC leader Sushmita Dev and JDU's KC Tyagi are also present at the protest site.


NCP leader Dr. Seema Malik, CPI's Narayana K, Samajwadi party's  Pooja Shukla, RJD's Shyam Rajak and MP Kapil Sibal are also supporting Kavitha's hunger strike.


Thanking her party leaders for supporting the cause, Kavitha tweeted, "Empowering women in the legislative discourse cannot be demanded, it must be guaranteed particularly by the Government. I thank @BRSparty leaders & cadre for extending their support to this protest."






Earlier on Thursday, K Kavitha announced that a hunger strike will be carried out in the national capital on March 10 and that 18 political parties have pledged to join the protest to demand the introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill in the current session of Parliament.


The BRS leader also stated that she will endure ED because she has done nothing wrong. At a news conference today, Kavitha, who was summoned by the ED for questioning in the Delhi excise police case, said that if a woman needs to be interviewed by a central agency, she has a "basic right" to be questioned at her house under the law.


“We released a poster on March 2 about the hunger strike in Delhi over the Women’s Reservation Bill. 18 parties confirmed their participation…ED summoned me on March 9. I requested for March 16 but don’t know what haste they’re in, so I agreed for March 11. When an agency wants to interrogate a woman, she has a fundamental right that it be done at her home,” she was quoted by ANI in its report. 


“So, I requested ED that they can come to my house on 11th March to investigate but they said that I will have to come to them,” the BRS leader said.



Kavitha landed in Delhi on Thursday and she has stated that she would appear before the Enforcement Directorate on March 11.


BRS MLC reacted in a series of tweets, stating that some political agendas were disguised as investigations.


“As a law-abiding citizen, I’ll fully cooperate with investigating agencies. I will appear at your good offices on March 11,” she had said in a statement, ANI reported. 


“…I have been summoned by ED to appear on March 9th in Delhi. However, due to the Dharna and prefixed appointments, I’ll see legal opinions on the date of attending it,” BRS MLC K Kavitha had stated


(With Inputs From Janiendra)