BRS may skip Parliament inaugural individually, not as part of Oppn group

HYDERABAD: The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is missing from a list of 19 ‘like-minded Opposition parties’ that issued a joint statement on Wednesday announcing their collective decision to boycott the inauguration of the new Parliament on May 28.

While BRS chief K. Chandrashekar Rao is yet to take a call on boycotting the inaugural event, party sources indicated that the BRS will boycott the event independently and not as a part of the joint Opposition.

The BRS is expected to make an announcement in this regard on Thursday.

While the Opposition parties have boycotted the inaugural event to protest against the decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the Parliament building, the BRS is expected to boycott the event to register its protest for not naming the new Parliament building after Dr B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution.

Chandrashekar Rao will also skip the Niti Aayog meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on May 27 with all Chief Ministers, keeping true to his practice of skipping the Niti Aayog meetings since 2019.

The BRS repeatedly demanded the Centre to name the new Parliament building after Ambedkar, with Chandrashekar Rao also writing to Narendra Modi last September in this regard and announcing that the new Telangana Secretariat would be named after Ambedkar.

The Telangana Legislative Assembly also passed a resolution last September, demanding the Centre name the Parliament building after Ambedkar.

Party sources said that the BRS leadership avoided signing a joint statement of Opposition parties on Wednesday as it did not wish to ally itself with a Congress-led group in the run-up to the state polls later this year.

They said although the 19 parties were those fighting against the BJP-led government at the Centre, like the BRS, the presence of Congress — considered its main rival in the state Assembly polls, especially after its Karnataka success — in the group proved a deterrent, as doing otherwise would send a wrong signal to party leaders and cadre.