BRS to Stay Away from Nitish's Oppn Meet on June 23

Hyderabad: The BRS will stay away from the meeting of non-BJP parties being convened by JDU chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on June 23, according to party sources.

BRS sources said that party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao took the decision to remain equidistant between the Congress and the BJP; the BRS cannot be in a group of which the Congress is a part.

They said BRS is focused on expansion in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, opening party offices and holding membership drives, and joining hands with the Opposition alliance at this stage will hit its plans.

Rao reportedly referred to the statement made by NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday that the BRS was the "B-team of the BJP," and told party leaders that the BRS was expanding in an unprecedented manner in Maharashtra. This made parties like the NCP, Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) jittery. Attending the Patna meeting in which the NCP and the Shiv Sena (UBT) are present would send the wrong message, he said.

The Telangana state polls will be held in five months in which BRS considers Congress as its main political rival and sharing dais with it in any meeting will dampen the spirit of BRS leaders and workers and adversely affect the party prospects in the Assembly polls, the CM reportedly felt.

Rao has made his stand clear in this regard while addressing a party meeting in Nagpur after inaugurating BRS office on June 15, stating that the party was not keen on joining any Front to defeat someone or to come to power at the Centre since earlier such attempts of National Front and United Front had failed.