While the Congress and other opposition parties trying hard to project a united front ahead of 2019 general elections, they are apprehensive about the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.
Sharad Pawar, the NCP supremo has expressed happiness over the fact that Rahul Gandhi will be not the face of the Grand Alliance ahead of 2019 general elections. He said that, “I am happy that the Congress leader (Rahul Gandhi) has also said he is not in the race for the prime minister’s post”. Pawar added that once the elections are over and BJP is out of power, the opposition parties will sit together and decide who could be the prime minister. “Whichever party has got more seats can claim the prime minister’s post”, he said.
Even as the Congress tries to put up a brave face projecting Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate, it is not the first time that the leaders of the grand alliance have expressed their doubts in the abilities of the Congress President.
Recently, the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also hinted about her apprehensions regarding projecting Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister candidate. Mamata Banerjee, who herself is dreaming to be the Prime Minister of the country someday has been playing safe when it comes to being associated with the grand alliance.
The opposition parties are yet to figure out their agenda to fight the BJP ahead of the 2019 general elections. Many leaders of the opposition parties have expressed their doubts regarding the leadership qualities of Rahul Gandhi. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said has that a lot of people were capable of becoming PM, while Akhilesh Yadav has claimed the country would see a new prime minister after 2019 elections. The BSP is expecting that Mayawati could be the united Opposition PM nominee, if the grand alliance performs well in the general elections.
Sharad Pawar has also come up with a new set of strategies to fight the BJP. Speaking to the media, Pawar said the opposition party which gets the maximum number of seats after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls could claim the post of the prime ministership.
In addition to this, he is keen on the idea of forging alliances of political parties at the state level and said the prime ministerial candidate could be decided after the election results, as happened after the 1977 and 2004 general polls. The Maratha leader said he would “try to go to each state and make regional parties which are not with the BJP to join us (the opposition alliance)”.
He further added that the situation is different in each state. He said that there are looking for an alliance with the strong regional parties in each state to fight the BJP. He noted that Congress was strong in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan while in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati-led BSP and Samajwadi Party are the strong enough to fight the BJP.
