Dasharatha's third wife and Bharata's mother, whose two boons, called in on her maid Manthara's urging, sent Rama into exile and set the Ramayana's plot in motion.
रामायण · Ramayana
Once a skilled charioteer who saved Dasharatha's life in battle, earning the two boons that later reshape the succession, Kaikeyi is portrayed as genuinely loving toward Rama before Manthara convinces her that Bharata's future depends on acting immediately, on the eve of Rama's coronation.
The epic's treatment of Kaikeyi is notably not one-dimensional; she is shown wracked with guilt afterward, and several regional retellings read her actions as instrumental to a larger design, since Rama's exile is what ultimately brings him into contact with Ravana at all.