NEW DELHI: With NCP chief Sharad Pawar stating that the INDIA bloc should not project a prime ministerial candidate ahead of the polls, Congress said it agrees with the senior ally, and that the Opposition should solely focus on the elections.
Pawar recently came out against the proposal that the opposition project a PM candidate, arguing that the Janata Party too had not done so in 1978, and had selected Morarji Desai after it defeated Congress.
TMC supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, at the meeting of the INDIA alliance on Wednesday at the meeting of the INDIA bloc this month proposed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for the top job. Interestingly, Kharge himself turned down the proposal in the meeting, where he told the allies that the alliance should work towards winning maximum seats and the issue of PM could be dealt with later.Asked about Pawar’s remark, AICC spokesman Jairam Ramesh said he agreed with the NCP chief and Congress has always believed that the PM face should not be announced before the elections. “We are not a presidential system. We don’t decide the PM face in advance,” he said.
While JDU chief Nitish Kumar has been seen as aspiring for projection, he recently denied it, while also claiming that he was not a candidate for any post.
Ramesh said whether Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would contest the LS polls was for her to decide. But he added that the AICC general secretary has been a relentless super star campaigner in the assembly elections, and the party is looking at her to fulfil the role in the LS polls as well.
Pawar recently came out against the proposal that the opposition project a PM candidate, arguing that the Janata Party too had not done so in 1978, and had selected Morarji Desai after it defeated Congress.
TMC supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, at the meeting of the INDIA alliance on Wednesday at the meeting of the INDIA bloc this month proposed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for the top job. Interestingly, Kharge himself turned down the proposal in the meeting, where he told the allies that the alliance should work towards winning maximum seats and the issue of PM could be dealt with later.Asked about Pawar’s remark, AICC spokesman Jairam Ramesh said he agreed with the NCP chief and Congress has always believed that the PM face should not be announced before the elections. “We are not a presidential system. We don’t decide the PM face in advance,” he said.
While JDU chief Nitish Kumar has been seen as aspiring for projection, he recently denied it, while also claiming that he was not a candidate for any post.
Ramesh said whether Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would contest the LS polls was for her to decide. But he added that the AICC general secretary has been a relentless super star campaigner in the assembly elections, and the party is looking at her to fulfil the role in the LS polls as well.
