Chief ministers from several Opposition-ruled states stayed away from the two-day BRICS summit in New Delhi, despite all state leaders being invited to the event.

There was no official explanation from the Opposition parties for their absence. However, sources in Telangana and Himachal Pradesh said Chief Ministers Revanth Reddy and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu could not attend because of prior commitments.

Six chief ministers from BJP-ruled states participated in the summit's gala dinner at Bharat Mandapam.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Maharashtra's Devendra Fadnavis, West Bengal's Suvendu Adhikari, Assam's Himanta Biswa Sarma, Uttarakhand's Pushkar Singh Dhami and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta were present at the dinner.

Opposition leaders absent

Among those who did not attend were Kerala Chief Minister VD Satheesan, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Revanth Reddy and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

The absence comes against a history of Opposition parties skipping major meetings convened by the Centre.

Several Opposition-ruled states had stayed away from the ninth NITI Aayog Governing Council meeting in July 2024. At the time, chief ministers from Congress-ruled states and other INDIA bloc governments cited their objections to the Union Budget, alleging that it disadvantaged non-NDA states.

In 2023, Congress chief ministers also did not attend a G20 dinner hosted by President Droupadi Murmu in New Delhi, although some other INDIA bloc leaders, including then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, attended.

Congress questions BRICS outcome

The Congress criticised the outcome of the BRICS summit, questioning what it described as limited gains from the meeting and the final declaration.

The party particularly flagged the absence of references to Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and the Pahalgam terror attack.

Congress leader Nana Patole said India should have used the summit to take a stronger position on its territorial concerns with China.

He argued that New Delhi should have directly raised the issue of Chinese control over areas claimed by India and sought their withdrawal.

Congress leader Rashid Alvi also questioned the wording of the Delhi Declaration on terrorism.

While the declaration condemned terrorism and referred to the Pahalgam attack, Alvi questioned why it did not identify those responsible for the attack or explicitly name the forces behind terrorism.