All-not-so-merry at INDIA camp after Mamata, Kejriwal propose Kharge’s name for PM face
The INDIA block met in Delhi on Tuesday, December 19 where they were supposed to finalise on a name for the alliance’s prime ministerial candidate who would be their alternative to NDA’s Narendra Modi. Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee and Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal reportedly proposed Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s name for the job, which he turned down, saying that the alliance should first concentrate on making it’s MPs win the Lok Sabha elections.
This was the first meeting after the BJP’s triumphant win in the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and Congress snatching away Telangana from KCR. It is being said that the seat-sharing calculations will be completed by the alliance by the second week of January, which is also bound to give birth to major contentions in the states where INDIA constituents are themselves at loggerheads, like in Kerala or Bengal.
On December 22, constituent parties will protest against the suspension of 141 opposition MPs from both houses of the Parliament in their respective territories. The alliance is also said to be holding eight to 10 joint rallies in different parts of the country to put up an unified message against the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party.
But things may not be as hunky-dory as they seem to be from the outside. Sources say that JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar and RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav left the meeting after the Mamata-Kejriwal combine proposed Kharge’s name for the prime ministerial candidate. They also didn’t attend the presser following the meeting.
Lalu and Nitish are in a coalition in Bihar, and therefore, it is no surprise that the veteran Yadav strongman would be against any kind of decision which would anger his partner-in-government and compel him to leave the alliance to join hands with the BJP, as he is famed to do time and again.
The names of individuals who would be probable candidates against Narendra Modi in Varanasi were also discussed, where it was suggested that either Nitish Kumar or Priyanka Gandhi fight the battle against the Modi juggernaut in the temple town.
Varanasi has voted for the BJP in every election since 1991 (except for 2004) and sent Narendra Modi to the Lok Sabha in 2014 and 2019, the second time with a mandate in excess of 60 per cent.
