BRS plays down Kumaraswamy\'s absence from KCR\'s Khammam rally

Hyderabad: After the Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former Karnataka CM H.D. Kumaraswamy's  conspicuous absence from the first public meeting of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Khammam raised eyebrows, the party circles attempted to downplay the issue by claiming that he was engaged in a 'Rath Yatra' as part of campaigning for the upcoming Assembly elections in Karnataka.

Party insiders claimed that since Kumaraswamy was in the middle of the yatra, Rao did not want to disturb him for the Khammam rally, and Kumaraswamy himself informed Rao that he wanted to continue his yatra because the Assembly elections scheduled for April/May were drawing near.

Since Kumaraswamy was part of all the major events during the process of transformation of TRS into BRS since October last year, his absence from the Khammam meeting has become a subject of hot debate within the party and in political circles.

Kumaraswamy attended the meeting of the TRS state executive on October 5 at Telangana Bhavan, which was called to pass a unanimous resolution urging the EC to rename TRS to BRS.

He also attended the event marking the official launch of the BRS and Rao hoisting the party flag at the party headquarters on December 8 after the EC approved name change on December 7. Further, he attended the inauguration of BRS national party office in New Delhi on December 14.

Speculations were rife that Kumaraswamy has announced the list of 92 JDS candidates for the upcoming elections in Karnataka and this miffed the CM, as he intended to field BRS candidates for a few seats in districts bordering Telangana. 

While the CM wanted BRS-JDS to work together for the Karnataka Assembly polls, Kumaraswamy declared candidates on his own, which led to differences between both the leaders, it was speculated.

However, BRS circles trashed these speculations stating that Rao wants JDS to win the Assembly polls and he already announced publicly that he wants to see Kumaraswamy as the next CM of Karnataka.