A day after the leaders of 26 Opposition parties led by the Congress met in Bengaluru to announce a new coalition, INDIA, and the NDA headed by the BJP had a meeting with 38 parties, the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS; earlier Telangana Rashtra Samiti or TRS), which was not invited to either of these meetings, remains unfazed. In an exclusive interview with The Hindu’s Ravi Reddy and R. Ravikanth Reddy, former BRS MP and Vice Chairman of the Telangana State Planning Board B. Vinod Kumar, reiterated the party’s commitment to maintain equidistance from the Congress’ and the BJP’s alliances, respectively, and foresaw an important role for party supremo and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao in national politics after the 2024 parliamentary elections. Excerpts from the interview:
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) partners and the BJP-led like-minded parties held crucial meetings in Bengaluru and New Delhi on Tuesday. The BRS was not invited to these meetings. How do you see this development?
Yes, right from the beginning, we are neither with the UPA or the NDA (National Democratic Alliance). We left the UPA way back in 2006. In spite of either alliance, we could achieve our goal, that is, the formation of the State of Telangana. Even later, in 2014, when elections were held in undivided Andhra Pradesh, we could win elections on our own, and formed the government. After that in 2018, we once again contested against the BJP and the Congress and won the elections. It is now the ninth year [in power].
Very recently, we transformed from the TRS to the BRS. Our aim is to see an alternative to both the Congress and the BJP. Definitely, we are hopeful in the coming days, after the elections are held in the month of November or December, in Telangana there will definitely be polarisation between Opposition political parties. Hopefully, non-Congress, non-BJP parties will once again come together.
The BRS will contest across the nation along with our well-wishers and definitely emerge as an important political party in 2024.
Is it that the UPA and NDA do not trust BRS supremo, or has the party taken a conscious decision to maintain equidistance from the Congress and the BJP?
You see, whether it is believing or unbelieving, it’s our political ideology. In the 2004 elections, we contested in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana along with the Congress and won five Lok Sabha and 26 Assembly seats [respectively]. We joined the UPA and the Congress ditched us in 2006 in spite of an announcement by the President in the joint session of Parliament, mentioning the State of Telangana in the Common Minimum Programme.
The Congress party said in 2006 that all other political parties were not in tune with the formation of the State of Telangana. We left the UPA alliance and did not join the Congress, and neither did we have an alliance with the BJP.
We have our own ideology of maintaining equidistance to the Congress and the BJP.
