Congress
president
Mallikarjun Kharge
on Friday named
Rahul Gandhi
as his choice for the prime minister’s post if the INDIA bloc is voted to office on June 4.
Asked about West Bengal CM
Mamata Banerjee
’s proposal at a Nov meeting of the INDIA group that Kharge should be projected as the opposition’s PM candidate, he said Congress would decide his fate and “why should we unnecessarily confuse ourselves and also others”.
He said the alliance was focussed on winning the elections, after which the allies would sit together and take a decision, as was done in 2004 and 2009. He exuded confidence that the opposition would oust BJP from office.
“In Congress, our great leader
Rahul
Gandhi is there. Why should they unnecessarily bring my name? My party will decide my fate,” he told NDTV. “I want my leader Rahul to become PM. Our young leader is known to the entire country now. Rahul worked so hard. He is facing so many cases. If anybody asks me, my preference will be Rahul (for the PM’s post),” he added.
Kharge said he had urged Rahul and
Priyanka Gandhi
to contest from Amethi and Rae Bareli respectively but Rahul was hesitant to fight out of concern that he had to campaign across the country and there would be nobody to take care of his campaign. He said
Priyanka
sat out the elections to become Rahul’s campaign manager in Rae Bareli.
“We wanted Rahul to be free to campaign across the country. He met people, young and old, from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, and Manipur to Mumbai, during his yatras. We needed a face that is already known to the country,” Kharge said, adding there was “great attraction” for Priyanka’s speeches.
The Congress veteran rubbished home minister Amit Shah’s claim that he would be made the fall guy for Congress’s defeat. He said the INDIA bloc had worked well and would win the elections, a reason why PM Modi “spoke out of frustration… giving speeches that I never expected from him”.
