Hyderabad: Even as leaders of four non-Congress opposition parties came together at the Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s (BRS) first public meeting in Telangana’s Khammam, it was not clear whether they would come together as a team for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. How to work together
From Pinarayi Vijayan, Akhilesh Yadav to Arvind Kejriwal, D. Raja, opposition stalwarts K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) – advocating a non-Congress, non-BJP federal front – to send a message to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Leader after leader spoke and urged people to put up a “new resistance” to the Narendra Modi government and its policies, as the Khammam rally sought some semblance of a federal front.
The leaders criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi for unemployment, farmer distress, privatization of public enterprises in the country and alleged that he was trying to rope in chief ministers of non-BJP states.
That the Congress has lost its footing among the opposition parties was evident as none of these leaders, despite going all out against the BJP and stressing on the need for an alternative, hardly mentioned it.
Three Chief Ministers – Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala, Bhagwant Mann of Punjab and Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi – shared the stage with KCR. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Communist Party of India general secretary D. Raja also joined KCR in Khammam along with leaders of Communist Party of India-Marxist and Aam Aadmi Party.
Apart from the public meeting, KCR had also invited all the leaders for the inauguration of the Integrated District Collectorate Complex and the launch of the second phase of ‘Kanti Velugu’, a public welfare program in Telangana.
At the rally, Vijayan said the BJP-led central government was destroying the federal structure of the country. He also targeted the BJP government for imposing Hindi at the cost of regional languages.
The veteran CPI(M) leader, who has been a staunch critic of the Congress, said a “new resistance” is needed to protect the country’s secularism and democracy. He said, “Khammm it could be the beginning.”
Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party said that if Telangana wipes out the BJP from his state, Uttar Pradesh will do the same. “Remove BJP from here, UP will not be left behind.”
Elections are due in Telangana on or before December this year.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also spoke about how the Modi government is implementing schemes that were first started by KCR in Telangana. He also praised KCR for bringing the leaders together on one platform.
Yadav, who equated the BJP and the Congress, had Thank you Rahul Gandhi invited her for Bharat Jodo Yatra in Uttar Pradesh, but she did not participate.
At the rally, CPI’s D. Raja highlighted how the country, in collusion with the BJP and the RSS, is attacking India’s constitution and democracy.
As far as the Aam Aadmi Party’s clash with the Center goes, Delhi Chief Minister and the party’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal criticized the BJP’s “vindictive politics”.
“The Tamil Nadu governor is not allowing the CM to work. Same is the situation in Punjab, Telangana, Delhi. …that’s Modi Sir The one who is making calls and making governors, is becoming an obstacle for the chief ministers. The call comes from Delhi and Modi always thinks about how to bring down the Chief Ministers (in non-BJP states).
He said, “We have come together and are discussing development and how to transform our education sector, reform agriculture sector…” Government at the Centre.
(Edited by Tony Rae)