HYDERABAD: With the regional parties stepping up efforts to forge a new national front minus the Congress party to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls following the meeting between Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday last, BRS president and Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao is planning to utilise the upcoming BRS plenary on April 27 in Hyderabad to bring regional parties together.
Since it will be the first plenary of the party after its rebranding from the TRS to the BRS in October last year to foray into national politics, sources said that Rao wants to give a ‘national touch’ to the event by sharing the dais with leaders of the regional parties. While the BRS plenary will be held on April 27, the inauguration of the new Secretariat has been scheduled on April 30.
It may be recalled that the CM on January 24 invited DMK chief and Tamil Nadu CM M.K.Stalin, JMM chief and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, RJD leader and Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh on behalf of JDU chief and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar for inauguration of the new Secretariat on February 17 on the occasion of his birthday. The CM also announced to hold a public meeting with these leaders at Parade Grounds soon after the Secretariat inauguration.
However, on February 11, Rao issued a statement putting off the Secretariat inauguration citing election code of conduct for the MLC elections for Hyderabad-RR-Mahabubnagar Teachers Constituency as well as the Hyderabad Local Authorities Constituency. The election code was in force until March 16.
On March 10, the CM announced the inauguration of a new Secretariat on April 30. However, he did not specify anything about inviting the CMs and leaders of the regional parties this time.
Party sources said that the CM now plans to invite the CMs and regional party leaders to the BRS plenary instead of the new Secretariat inauguration. Rao’s decision was changed after Akhilesh Yadav met Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on March 17 and told the media that a new front or alliance minus the Congress will emerge before the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Rao has been maintaining cordial relations with Akhilesh for a long time. Akhilesh attended the BRS national office inauguration in New Delhi in December last and also took part in the BRS first public meeting held in January in Khammam along with AAP leaders and CMs of Delhi and Punjab, Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Singh Mann besides Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and CPI national secretary D. Raja.
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