NEWDELHI: The presence of chief ministers from BJP-governed states at the dinner for Brics leaders hosted by govt made it look like an entirely governing alliance affair, but official sources said that CMs hailing from opposition parties were also invited but did not attend the event.While Tamil Nadu CM Vijay was abroad, three Congress CMs invited for the dinner chose to skip it.In fact, a day before the dinner on Sept 12, Telangana CM Revanth Reddy had accepted the invitation for the dinner hosted by PM Modi. However, Reddy’s office later conveyed to govt that he will be unable to attend due to “unavoidable circumstances”.
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Two other Congress chief ministers – V D Satheesan of Kerala and D K Shivakumar of Karnataka – also skipped the dinner.While no political blame game has occurred over the issue, there have been past incidents of BJP accusing Congress neta Rahul Gandhi of skipping solemn state events despite an invite, and the opposition party in turn attacking govt for not inviting Rahul or its president Mallikarjun Kharge for state banquets.The decision to invite CMs of different states for the dinner for BRICS leaders was in keeping with govt’s move to host numerous events related to the grouping during India’s presidency across various cities, and the decision of opposition CMs to skip it was unfortunate, the sources said. tnn