The conclusion of the high-profile two-day BRICS leaders' summit at the iconic Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi has triggered an intense domestic political confrontation, with chief ministers of opposition-ruled states noticeably absent from the proceedings and the official banquet hosted in honor of visiting world leaders. While formal invitations were extended across party lines to state executives nationwide to project federal unity on the global stage, chief ministers from non-BJP governed states opted out of the international engagement. While official statements explaining the non-attendance were largely withheld by individual state secretariats, administrative aides close to Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu maintained that prior official commitments and pre-scheduled state engagements prevented their physical presence in the national capital.

Six NDA Chief Ministers Join Global Gathering at Bharat Mandapam

In sharp contrast to the absence of opposition leaders, six chief ministers heading BJP and NDA-governed states actively participated in the high-stakes summit deliberations and attended the ceremonial dinner alongside international heads of state. The delegation of attending leaders included Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. Conversely, senior figures from non-NDA regions—including Kerala's VD Satheesan, Tamil Nadu's Vijay, Karnataka's DK Shivakumar, alongside Revanth Reddy and Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu—remained away from the diplomatic venue. The boycott follows a visible trend of domestic political friction overshadowing multilateral events, recalling similar opposition walkouts during the NITI Aayog Governing Council session in July 2024 and the ceremonial G20 leaders' dinner in September 2023.

Congress Mounts Attack on New Delhi Declaration Over China Border Standoff and Terrorism Ambiguity

Seizing on the diplomatic outcomes of the summit, the Indian National Congress mounted a sharp critique of the New Delhi Declaration, alleging that the final multilateral consensus fell drastically short of India's strategic security imperatives. Senior Congress leader Nana Patole asserted that in light of continued Chinese transgressions and military build-ups across forward frontiers in Arunachal Pradesh and eastern Ladakh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi missed a vital diplomatic opening to forcefully demand an immediate, verified pullback of Chinese troops. Echoing these concerns, Congress veteran Rashid Alvi scrutinized the counter-terrorism provisions embedded within the joint summit communique. While noting that the declaration explicitly denounced the recent Pahalgam terror strike, Alvi argued that the document failed to identify state sponsors of cross-border terrorism, criticizing the collective statement for avoiding direct accountability on regional proxy networks.