BRS unlikely to attend June 23 opposition party meeting

The Telangana assembly polls will take place in December along with those in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram.

Updated on: Jun 16, 2023, 05:01:08 IST

By Chetan Chauhan

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The K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is unlikely to attend the meeting of opposition parties on June 23 in Patna, a senior party leader said, claiming that the party will continue with its equidistance from both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress -- a stance likely prompted by coming assembly elections in the state where the Congress and the BJP will both take on the regional party.

K Chandrasekhar Rao has spelt out to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, who is trying to put together a common opposition front, his party’s unwillingness to be part of an alliance that includes the Congress. (Facebook/KCR)

Also Read | KCR says BRS will contest all seats in Maharashtra polls, rules out alliance

A senior party leader aware of the development said K Chandrasekhar Rao has clearly spelt out to Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal (United) leader, Nitish Kumar, who is trying to put together a common opposition front, his party’s unwillingness to be part of an alliance that includes the Congress, which the party sees at is main rival in Telangana.

The Navneen Patnaik led Biju Janata Dal and BRS are the two major political parties which are unlikely to attend the meeting, a senior JD (U) leader confirmed.

According to the BRS leader cited above, an internal assessment shows that the Congress is ahead of the BJP in Telangana . “We don’t take our rivals lightly. The Congress may have got some boost after its victory in Karnataka but it will flounder in Telangana.”

Also Read | BRS will score a hat-trick in assembly polls: KCR

The Telangana assembly polls will take place in December along with those in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram.

On Tuesday, Rao warned that people should not trust the Congress, which could undo the good work done by the Telangana government for various sections of the society. Analysts say that it is after months that Rao has directly attacked the Congress.

Claiming that the Congress would abolish ‘Dharani’, the -land records management portal (if they come to power), KCR accused the party of encouraging middlemen. “BRS government means farmers’ kingdom. Congress is proclaiming that it would abolish the ‘Dharani’ portal. It is nothing but encouraging middlemen. Do we want it?” he asked the public at a rally in Nagarkurnool.

A second senior BRS leader explained that becoming part of the opposition alliance would be contrary to the party’s expansion in states such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.

“We have already enrolled 2.5 lakh members in Maharashtra. Several prominent leaders such as former Odisha chief minister Giridhar Gamang have joined the party in Odisha. Shortly, we will open our party office in Bhopal, and later in other Hindi speaking states.”

However, the two BRS leaders said that they will continue to give “issue-based” support to the opposition parties and pointed to the party’s boycott of the inauguration of the Parliament’s new building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 29.

The BRS has also supported Arvind Kejriwal who has asked opposition parties to ensure the ordinance issued by the Central government on curbing Delhi government powers related to services, isn’t passed in the Rajya Sabha when the time comes for the executive order to be legislated. The BJP lacks majority in the Rajya Sabha. The Congress has not responded to Kejriwal’s call so far.

A senior BRS leader in Hyderabad said though no official decision was taken by the party in this regard, KCR may not attend the meeting in which Congress is a part.

(With inputs from HTC Hyderabad)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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