Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

The Prime Ministerial candidacy issue will be tackled after the polls, in a two-stage plan, according to Congress sources. Opposition parties have formed a ‘strategic understanding to work together’ to stop the BJPRSS combine from assuming power in 2019.

Discussions regarding the Prime Ministerial Candidacy is divisive at the moment, according to top Opposition leaders. The focus, according to them, is to have one platform where every like-minded Opposition party can be accommodated without any confusion and disruption.

The issue of leaving the choice of candidacy for post poll discussions is significant as West Bengal‘s Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee of All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) is a front-runner for the position, and Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has also set her eyes on the Prime Ministerial position, if the grand alliance does well in Uttar Pradesh.

Alliances and pre-poll understanding in States such as UP, Bihar and Maharashtra are crucial in the Opposition’s efforts to stop Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to the Congress.

Alliances have been made in Maharashtra with Sharad Pawar‘s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and in Bihar with Lalu Prasad Yadav‘s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), according to Party leaders’ claims. In Uttar Pradesh, however, the party is yet to form a grand alliance with the Samajwadi Party and the BSP. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has been advised by the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to ‘have alliances with like-minded parties’.

The party is also looking at Hindi speaking states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Haryana where it expects to do well in the next Lok Sabha polls. This will be done to help catapult the party to the centre-stage of an opposition alliance.

The Congress, however, might not have an alliance with Shiv Sena because of ideological differences, despite the latter’s strident opposition to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

If the BJP doesn’t get 230 seats or more on its own, NDA allies might prefer another Prime Ministerial candidate over PM Narendra Modi, according to senior leaders of the Congress.

By Rahil

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *