Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha said on Thursday that Congress was no more a national party and it should align itself with regional parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, reported PTI.
“Congress party has the habit of undermining regional parties that raise their voice against the Bharatiya Janata Party,” Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, said at a press conference. “They [Congress] think that the regional parties are their B team or C team. However, if you look at the state of the party today it is that of a big regional party. They are not a national party anymore.”
Kavitha said that Congress should get rid of its delusions and think of making the party stronger in the interest of the country at large.
“They should align with strong regional parties if they truly want to defeat the BJP in 2024 elections,” she added. “They should leave their arrogance, come down and become a team player working with all the parties.”
Kavitha’s statements come two days before she is scheduled to appear before the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in the Delhi liquor policy case on March 11. The central agency has alleged that Kavitha is part of the “South Group” that paid at least Rs 100 crore in kickbacks to leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party through arrested businessman Vijay Nair in the case.
Last month, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had expressed confidence that the party will win the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 with support from its allies. However, several regional parties like the Bharat Rashtra Samithi have repeatedly signalled that they were not looking to ally with the Congress in next year’s general elections.
In October, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi had re-branded itself from itself to make a foray into national politics by changing its name from Telangana Rashtra Samithi. In January, several Opposition leaders like Arvind Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav and Pinarayi Vijayan attended a rally in where K Chandrashekar Rao gave the call for the ouster of BJP, even as they did not join Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra.
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