During a strategy meeting with leaders of the Telangana Congress, former party chief Rahul Gandhi has made it clear that the grand old party will not have any kind of alliance with the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana as "it works with the Bharatiya Janata Party", sources said on Wednesday. The Congress called the meeting of its leaders from Telangana on Tuesday, June 27, to discuss the strategy for the state, which will go to polls later this year. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge chaired the meeting which was also attended by Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, Telangana state in-charge Manikrao Thakare, state unit chief A Revanth Reddy, former Member of Parliament (MP) Renuka Chowdhury and others.
According to party sources, during the meeting at the party headquarters in New Delhi, Rahul Gandhi was very vocal and said that the party will not have any kind of alliance with the BRS in the state. The party source further said that Rahul, during the meeting, also said that one cannot imagine that BRS can be part of the alliance as it is team B of the BJP. The source said Rahul Gandhi made it clear that the Congress will go into the Assembly polls with an agenda to highlight how BRS and BJP are working together in the state.
Earlier this year, Congress did not participate in the round table meeting organised by BRS leader K Kavitha in the national capital over the Women's Reservation Bill. The BRS has not attended many meetings of the Union government in the last one and half years, but it participated in the all-party meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah over Manipur on June 24. KT Rama Rao, state minister and son of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, also met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and other ministers in the national capital during his two day visit.
The meeting at the Congress headquarters here came a day after at least 35 BRS leaders, including former minister Jupally Krishna Rao and former MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, joined the party after meeting Kharge and Rahul Gandhi. According to the party leaders, Rahul Gandhi will now address a public meeting in Khammam on July 2.