Leaders of the opposition-ruled states did not turn up for the two-day BRICS meet held in the national capital that ended today. All Chief Ministers were invited on the occasion. While there was no official explanation for the Opposition Chief Ministers skipping the meet, sources from Telangana and Himachal Pradesh said Chief Ministers Revanth Reddy and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had prior engagements.
Six Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states turned up for the meet.
Chief ministers Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra), Suvendu Adhikari (West Bengal), Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam), Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand), and Rekha Gupta (Delhi) -- attended the gala dinner at New Delhi's Bharat Mandapam.
Chief Minister VD Satheesan of Kerala, Tamil Nadu's Vijay, Karnataka's DK Shivakumar, Revanth Reddy and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu skipped the meeting.
The Opposition, however, had skipped several earlier meetings including Niti Aayog's 9th Governing Council meeting in July 2024.
The Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states and some from INDIA Bloc, including Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab and Delhi governments, and Tamil Nadu's then CHief Minister MK Stalin had decided to boycott the meeting to protest the Union budget, calling it 'discriminatory' towards non-NDA-ruled states.
In 2023, all Congress Chief Ministers stayed away from the G20 dinner hosted by President Droupadi Murmu in New Delhi. Several other leaders from the INDIA bloc --including MK Stalin -- however, did attend.
The Congress has also slammed the meet, questioning its achievements and the declaration, saying they fell far short of expectation. The lack of any mention of Arunachal, Ladakh or even the Pahalgam terror attack made it clear that it was not a "victory", the party said.
"Considering how China has occupied territories like Arunachal and Ladakh, the Prime Minister should speak bluntly and demand China's withdrawal. That would be the greatest benefit India could derive from this summit," said Congress leader Nana Patole.
Congress' Rashid Alvi said: "The Delhi Declaration that has been issued condemns terrorism and the Pahalgam incident, but does it state anywhere who carried out the Pahalgam attack? Does it mention anywhere who is perpetrating terrorism globally? There is no mention of that".
