The meeting of Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav with Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday, July 3, 2023, in Hyderabad is described by the SP as an attempt to forge a larger opposition grouping against the BJP for 2024 polls as both leaders shared a cordial relationship.
“We are clear from the beginning that the BJP can be defeated only when we [the Opposition] stand together. The Opposition parties in India consists not only of those parties which participated in the Patna meeting; our strategy is to bring all the Opposition forces together. Hence, with some parties Akhilesh Ji will talk, with some Nitish Ji or other leaders will speak. The meeting should be seen in that way as Akhilesh Ji shares a very cordial relationship with the Telangana Chief Minister” said Sunil Singh Yadav, SP national spokesperson.
Asked how the Monday meeting will help since the BRS is opposed to the idea of an opposition front including the Congress, the SP leader replied that it is certain that the BRS is opposed to the BJP, and other issues could be settled in due course of time.
“I see it as an exercise to forge a larger opposition grouping against the BJP, as the Opposition parties may have sent Mr. Yadav as a messenger to discuss the broader anti-BJP front idea,” said Shashi Kant Pandey, a political analyst based in Lucknow.
It is not the first time the SP president met the Telangana Chief Minister; Mr. Yadav was among the few leaders who joined the BRS rally in January at Khammam along with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. The rally was seen as a bid by the BRS to forge a non-BJP, non-Congress front in the run-up to 2024 polls.
