Khammam: Prominent opposition leaders sounded a clarion call for regime change at the Centre by dislodging the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, at the first mega rally of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) here on Wednesday.
Mr Rao taunted the central government over a host of issues, including interstate water and development issues, and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would go home and a dispensation propped up by BRS shall stop initiatives like the 'LIC disinvestment' and implement welfare measures such as Rythu Bandhu for farmers across the nation.
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said,
Mr Modi commented in his party's national executive meet that only 400 days are left for the 2024 LS election, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav pointed out, saying that the ruling BJP has started 'counting its days' and it would not last a day more in power beyond its present tenure, Yadav said.
The mega public meeting, which was attended by several leaders other leaders also including Aam Aadmi Party's Arvind Kejriwal, was a show of strength against the BJP, with the BRS having taken its first steps towards joining forces with like-minded parties at the national level. The mega meeting is also expected to help BRS to take on the BJP in the state more strongly.
“The country wants a change. People came to know that these people (NDA government) did not come to change the country. They just came to ruin the country. The 2024 elections are an opportunity for you (people). Ten years is over. How long will you wait?" asked Mr Kejriwal, the Delhi Chief Minister.
People should usher in a regime that would think about the country, unemployment, healthcare, and price rise, he said. It is not the governors of some states who are troubling the elected chief ministers, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi, indicating that they act on the behest of the prime minister, the AAP leader said.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan accused the BJP-ruled Centre of 'undoing' the foundations of the nation's democracy and called for a 'new resistance' to protect secularism, democracy and the Constitution. People should unite against the communal agenda that seeks to divide the country, he said.
"I hope that today, in Khammam, the land of people's resistances, we will have the beginning of a new resistance, a resistance to secure the ideals that we fought for in our freedom struggle, A resistance to protect our secularism, our democracy, our Constitution and thereby our nation," he said.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said the country wanted jobs and the youth are jobless.
CPI General Secretary D Raja said: "We will have to fight against the BJP-RSS combine and will have to defeat them in the forthcoming 2024 election. This is the message that should go from Khammam, the revolutionary centre of Telangana. I appeal to all secular democratic parties to understand the emerging threat and understand the disaster that we are facing."
