Not going to Bengaluru meet doesn’t mean BRS is pro-BJP: MP Rao

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) skipping the Opposition parties’ meeting in Bengaluru does not mean it is pro-BJP and opposed to the idea of an Opposition alliance, said the party’s Rajya Sabha floor leader K Keshava Rao. As Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao’s regional party was seen coordinating with other Opposition parties, part of INDIA, on the first day of Parliament, Rao said he had congratulated senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh personally on Wednesday for forming an alliance.

K Keshava Rao told ET, “The party did not go for the Bengaluru meeting does not mean we are pro-BJP. We are not opposed to the idea of INDIA. The idea is unity in diversity.” He said the BRS will coordinate with Opposition parties over specific issues throughout the on-going monsoon session of Parliament.

“We are coordinating with the other Opposition parties on all issues,” he said, adding that the entire Opposition had walked out of the Rajya Sabha business advisory committee meeting on Thursday.


“Our party has already vouched support to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal over the Delhi ordinance. Today the Opposition parties — our party BRS, AAP, Congress, Trinamool Congress, everyone — feel that the matter is sub judice and the government should allow the ordinance to lapse and wait for the court judgement,” said Rao.

Brushing aside the suggestion that BRS was a “fence sitter”, he said, “I am agnostic but that does not mean I am an atheist. I am not against the idea of INDIA. I have my own views — I will be with the group which is with the people.” BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao had spearheaded the efforts for a united Opposition earlier this year.

He had flown to state capitals and reached out to West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Delhi CM and former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav. However, he has expressed reservations about being on the same platform as Congress, BRS’ principal challenger in Telangana, where election is due later this year.

His daughter K Kavitha’s questioning by ED in Delhi liquor case has acted as a dampener in his attempt to cobble up a non-BJP non-Congress Opposition front.