New Delhi: Days after the crucial Opposition meeting to chalk out a roadmap ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao said the fight against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should be based on "principal issues" and not just focus on “dislodging someone” from power. He also asserted that his party will never compromise on the issue of core welfare of the country and BRS will only form an alliance with those parties that have a common agenda for the welfare of the people.
"The fight (against the BJP) should be on principal issues before the country. Unfortunately, we are losing the plot there. We seem to be obsessed and worried about dislodging someone or putting somebody there and that should not be the agenda. The agenda should be how the basic priorities of the country have to be met," KTR told news agency PTI in an interview.
Speaking on the recently held meeting of the 17 Opposition parties in Patna in a bid to forge unity to take on the BJP in the general elections next year, KTR said, “You should not be uniting against somebody. You should be uniting for something. What is that something, nobody is able to figure out.”
The Telangana minister also indicated that the BRS was willing to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls on its own and try to make an impactful beginning aiming to win a sizeable number of seats.
KTR said that any united front, that has Congress or the BJP as its fulcrum, will not succeed as these national parties have been a "disaster" for the country.
"What matters to the country today is the creation of employment, wealth for farmers, irrigation, and rural livelihood. These are things that matter, not hijab or halal and 'bakwas' around religion," he said. "Those two principal parties are the BJP and Congress. The Congress governed for 50 years, while the BJP for 15 years. Had both worked properly, this situation would not have arisen. Both the Congress and BJP are responsible for the country lagging behind and not progressing as much as it should be in the last 75 years,” he added.
It is to be noted that BRS skipped the Patna meeting that was hosted by JD(U) supremo and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to work on an opposition alliance.