As expected, Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) stayed away from the meeting of Opposition parties in Patna on Friday and instead, the party chose to meet the Central government ministers seeking support for various developmental activities on the same day in New Delhi.
The BRS has been reluctant to go with any front where the Congress is part as the grand old party is the main Opposition in Telangana and it is the only party as of now to be in a position to challenge the BRS party and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in the next elections.
The reluctance was also evident when BRW working president and Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development K. T. Rama Rao did not even acknowledge receiving any invite for the Patna meeting during a chat with the mediapersons after his return from the United States. It is not yet officially made clear whether the BRS got the invite or not.
The Minister, who is in New Delhi on Friday, also made it clear during a media interaction that the BRS doesn’t want to be part of any group where the BJP or the Congress was part of as it sees both the parties as a disaster for the country. “Our agenda is uniting people on issues and not the political parties,” he said while replying to a question. He further said any front with one of these parties being a member will not succeed.
The BRS, which has been very harsh on the BJP government and also on Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally over the last one year, has suddenly turned soft in its criticism inviting flak from the Congress leadership who said that BRS was part of the BJP and will always be part of it. In several press conferences, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao himself described Mr. Modi’s leadership as a huge disaster for the country politically and otherwise.
However, during his recent meeting in Nagpur, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao termed the Prime Minister as his ‘good friend’ surprising everyone and further fuelling the speculation that BRS wants to be soft on the BJP and target the Congress instead.