Leaders of 16 Opposition parties met, BRS stays away

NEW DELHI: The BRS stayed away from the meeting of 16 Opposition leaders in the chamber of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress president, at Parliament House on Monday, citing the Congress’ criticism of party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, BRS MP K.R. Suresh Reddy said, "The opposition leaders had invited BRS for this meeting. But we rejected it because a few national Congress leaders are making unwarranted comments against the BRS and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao during their frequent visits to Telangana.”

At a time the BRS and Rao were waging a battle against BJP and trying t bring all non-BJP parties together against BJP, the statements being made by these Congress leaders were not acceptable, Suresh Reddy said.

“For this reason, we abstained from the meeting. But our party is ready to join hands with the opposition parties in fight against the BJP's misrule in both the Houses. We have conveyed the party's decision to the opposition leaders."

Among the parties that attended the meeting were the Congress, DMK, JDU, AAP, CPI (M), CPI, Kerala Congress, RLD, NCP, National Conference, IUML, SS (Uddhav), MDMK, RSP, RJD and JMM. They discussed evolving a joint strategy to corner the government on several issues and decided to raise the issues of the alleged misuse of investigative agencies and the Adani row.