The Congress is opposed to portraying any member of the I.N.D.I. Alliance as a prime ministerial candidate to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, according to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge in an exclusive interview with NDTV.
It is preferable, according to him, to be contest elections without a common PM candidate so that parties can convene and choose a candidate. He stressed, “This will ensure all are together in the run-up to the general election.” So evidently, Kharge admitted that even as the 2024 elections are just months away, there is no consensus among the I.N.D.I.Alliance partners regarding a PM candidate and there is a risk of the coalition breaking apart over the issue.
The Congress has revealed that it is in communication with all of its partners in the coalition, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of Bihar to clarify that the party needed to take a break from the opposition meetings because the state elections are also important to it. He alleged that confronting the Bharatiya Janata Party required forging an alliance and cooperating as a unit.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recently accused Congress of ignoring the opposition bloc in a CPI (Communist Party of India) rally. The Congress party, he emphasised, is not paying attention to the alliance because it is too consumed with preparing for the assembly polls that are coming up in five states.
The Bihar CM added, “We have been speaking to them, pushing them forward in I.N.D.I. Alliance. But, of late, there has not been much progress on that front. The Congress seems to be more interested in the five assembly polls.”
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge also pointed out that his party’s state divisions oppose any cooperation with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). He added that despite the fact that the Congress and the Left parties are fierce rivals in Kerala, the AAP ought to consider supporting and fighting alongside the coalition in a manner similar to what the Left parties are doing across the country.
It is evident from his unambiguous stance against endorsing a prime ministerial candidate that Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi is not a serious contender for the prime ministerial position. NDTV quoted anonymous party sources to add that the Gandhi scion does not particularly want to be considered for the post.
All is not well in the Congress-led coalition as regular infighting and tussle are witnessed between the alliance partners. Congress is continuously under fire from Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav. He recently slammed them for promising him six seats in the upcoming Madhya Pradesh assembly election but failing to give even one seat to his party. He charged that even after this arrangement was agreed upon, Congress fielded candidates for every seat and left no space for the Samajwadi Party.
Yadav then took a jab at his coalition partner for demanding a nationwide caste census and contended that it was being done for political reasons. He remarked that the fact that Congress is now requesting a caste census is a ‘miracle.’ The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister emphasised that the grand old party has come to the realisation that voters in backward areas do not support them.
