Srimad Ramayana.
King Dasaratha wants to coronate Sri Rama as the
crown prince with the approval of all his people. Festive atmosphere spreads in Ayodhya and,
people from different directions arrive in Ayodhya to be there on the grand
occasion.
Manthara, a housemaid - residing with Kaikeyi since
her birth,
advised Kaikeyi to ask her husband the two oveerdue boons ,viz., anointing Bharata
for princely kingdom and sending Sri Rama to exile for fourteen years.
Once upon a time, when there was a battle
between celestials and demons, King Dasaratha went along with Kaikeyi and other
holy kings to help Indra in battle,with the demon king Timidhvaja.
Dasaratha fought a great battle there.
King Dasaratha was injured and Kaikeyi saved the life of King Dasaratha by
taking him away from the battle field, Getting delighted, King Dasaratha gave two
boons to Kaikeyi, who kept them for future use.. King Dasaratha agreed to it.
Having been thus wrongly preached by sinful
Manthara. Kaikeyi demanded the King to fulfil the 2 boons now.
Dasaratha is shocked by the strange wishes
of Kaikeyi and tries to convince Kaikeyi of her wishes as being harmful.
Kaikeyi would not heed to the emperor's words.
He even warns that Bharata will not accept to her wish of anointment himself
as crown prince.
Though King Dasaratha wants Sri Rama to
revolt against his order for exilement, he knows that having been told to go to
the forest, Sri Rama will say "Be it so”.
King Dasaratha said that if it becomes
agreeable to Bharata to send Rama to exile, let not Bharata do funeral rites to
him, when life has departed from his body and disowned Kaikeyi as wife in
anguish.
Kaikeyi sends Sumantra, the charioteer for
fetching Sri Rama, who immediately starts to the royal court to meet his
father.
-----
Kaikeyi, as far as I understood, was an
ordinary woman and mother. As a wife,
she served and shared all enjoyments with King Dasaratha. And,
being a Kshatriya lady, she saved the life of King Dasaratha in the
battle. Now, as a mother she asked for
her overdue boons from her husband.
There was nothing wrong in it.
However, she
failed to understand the mindset of the ultimate recipient of the Boon, her son
Bharata.
As forewarned by King Dasaratha, Bharata
rejected the very idea of anointment himself as crown prince. All her efforts, even at the cost of the life
of her husband, became useless.
In her anxiousness to do favour to her
son Bharata, she lost ultimately everything including the respect from her own
son, Bharata.
My
sympathies are with Kaikeyi. 
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