Opposition Chief Ministers Skip BRICS Dinner; Six BJP CMs Attend
Opposition-ruled states skipped the two-day BRICS meeting in Delhi, while six BJP chief ministers attended the gala dinner at Bharat Mandapam.
Chief ministers from several opposition-ruled states stayed away from a two-day BRICS meeting in the national capital that concluded on Monday, even as six chief ministers from BJP-governed states attended the event.
Among those who did not attend were Kerala's V D Satheesan, Tamil Nadu's Vijay, Karnataka's D K Shivakumar, Telangana's Revanth Reddy and Himachal Pradesh's Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. All chief ministers had been invited to the gathering.
No official reason was given for the absentees. Sources in Telangana and Himachal Pradesh said Reddy and Sukhu had prior commitments.
The BJP chief ministers who attended the gala dinner at Bharat Mandapam included Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra), Suvendu Adhikari (West Bengal), Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam), Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand) and Rekha Gupta (Delhi).
Opposition-ruled states have stayed away from similar central meetings before. In July 2024, they skipped the Niti Aayog Governing Council meeting, with Congress-ruled states and some INDIA bloc partners, including Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the AAP-led Punjab and Delhi governments and Tamil Nadu's then chief minister M K Stalin, boycotting it to protest what they called a discriminatory Union budget. In 2023, Congress chief ministers did not attend a G20 dinner hosted by President Droupadi Murmu, though several other INDIA bloc leaders, including Stalin, were present.
The Congress criticised the summit's outcome, saying it fell short of expectations. The party said the absence of any mention of Arunachal, Ladakh or the Pahalgam terror attack showed the meeting was not a victory.
Congress leader Nana Patole said the Prime Minister should speak bluntly about Chinese occupation of territories such as Arunachal and Ladakh and demand a withdrawal, calling that the greatest benefit India could draw from the summit. Party colleague Rashid Alvi said the Delhi Declaration condemns terrorism and the Pahalgam incident but does not name those responsible for the attack or identify who is perpetrating terrorism globally.