A day after senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) was the BJP's "B team", Samajwadi Party (SP) president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav met BRS supremo and Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao or KCR in Hyderabad on Monday. While Akhilesh had attended the Opposition parties' first joint meeting held in Patna on June 23, KCR was not invited to this conclave owing to the Congress's differences with the BRS. The BRS leaders told The Indian Express that Yadav, who is considered to be closest to the Telangana CM among all Opposition leaders, briefed KCR about the Patna meeting and sought to “explore the possibility of KCR sending a representative” to the second Opposition meet scheduled in Bengaluru on July 17-18. However, sources made it clear that Yadav was not representing the Opposition as a whole but had planned the visit in his personal capacity. The SP leader was also learnt to have conveyed that the “Opposition parties that aim to bring down the BJP government at the Centre should unite by setting aside all their differences”. During their meeting, Yadav was also learnt to have “tried to understand why the BRS is softening its stand on the BJP”, especially in the face of the challenge it is facing from the Congress in Telangana. Sources said the two leaders “discussed political events happening in the country, in light of Ajit Pawar joining the Eknath Shinde-BJP government in Maharashtra”. They discussed the "developments in Maharashtra at length as NCP was one of the main participants in the anti-BJP coalition”. The SP chief's visit to Pragathi Bhawan, the office and residence of KCR, comes a day after Rahul made a scathing attack on the BRS at a public rally in Khammam. In his speech at the rally, Rahul underlined that the BRS should not be invited to any meeting of the Opposition parties, announcing that the Congress would never join any meeting of which the BRS would be a part. Telangana Animal Husbandry Minister T Srinivas Yadav, Housing Minister Vemula Prashant Reddy, MP Joginpally Santosh Kumar, MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, MLA Jeevan Reddy, former minister S Venugopalachari and others were present during the KCR-Yadav meeting. Earlier, KCR and BRS leaders welcomed Yadav at Pragati Bhavan.
