Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav flew down to Hyderabad to have a three-hour-long meeting with Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) on Monday, officials familiar with the developments said.
The visit assumes significance in the wake of the recent meeting of about 15 opposition parties led by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in Patna to work out a common strategy to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the next year’s general elections.
Against the backdrop, the meeting of the SP chief, who was one of the key players in the opposition unity, with KCR raised a lot of curiosity. Yadav arrived in Hyderabad on Monday on a special flight and was received by senior minister Talasani Srinivasa Yadav at Begumpet Airport.
An official statement from the chief minister’s office said KCR accorded a warm welcome to Yadav at his camp office and official residence Pragati Bhavan and hosted lunch for him. “Both the leaders discussed national politics and other issues,” the statement said.
The meeting concluded at around 5.30 pm, and Yadav returned to Lucknow without commenting on the meeting. There was no official statement from the Telangana CMO or the BRS leaders either.
{{/usCountry}}The meeting concluded at around 5.30 pm, and Yadav returned to Lucknow without commenting on the meeting. There was no official statement from the Telangana CMO or the BRS leaders either.
{{/usCountry}}KCR’s nephew and Rajya Sabha member J Santosh Kumar, who was present at the meeting, refused to divulge details and said “no significance” should be given to the meeting.
KCR, who converted his regional outfit Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) into a national party BRS last year, has been aggressively attacking the BJP -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular. However, he was not invited to the Patna meeting, nor did the BRS participate.
At a huge public rally in Khammam on Sunday, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said his party would not have attended the opposition parties’ meeting had the BRS been invited.
“We shall keep the BRS at bay in our fight against the BJP,” he categorically said.
Efforts to reach out to senior BRS leaders like MPs K Kesava Rao or J Santosh Kumar did not yield any results, as they did not respond to calls or text messages.
Samajwadi Party Telangana unit president Prof Simhadri, who was present at the luncheon meeting with KCR, also did not respond to the calls.