I.N.D.I.A. Proposes Kharge for PM

New Delhi: The leaders of 28 political parties of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc met in the national capital on Tuesday. Sources say that

Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal proposed the name of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the Prime Ministerial face of the I.N.D.I.A bloc, at a meeting of 28 Opposition parties here on Tuesday.

Kharge is learnt to have downplayed the suggestion by asserting that the alliance should first win the required MPs and then talk about the Prime Minister candidate.

After the meeting, MDMK leader Vaiko said that Banerjee and Kejriwal had proposed Kharge's name. The alliance failed to find a convener or set up a secretariat for the alliance in the national capital.

After the conclusion of the meeting, the Congress said: "In all 28 parties participated in our fourth meeting and kept their thoughts before the committee of the alliance. It is a matter of happiness that a unanimous decision was taken on how the alliance should go forward."

On the issue of seat sharing, Kharge said it will be done at the state level. If there is any issue then it will be taken up at the central level. "Whether it's Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Bihar, UP, Delhi or Punjab, issues on seat-sharing will be resolved," he added.

When asked if he could be the Prime Minister candidate for the Opposition alliance, Kharge said, "First we have to win and get a majority, then MPs will decide democratically."

According to sources, most of the tricky issues between the alliance partners are expected to be settled by this month.

The Congress chief said that the bloc has decided to hold 8-10 meetings across the country. "If alliance partners don't come together on one stage, then people will not know about it. It's a good thing that the meeting lasted for 2-3 hours."

The Congress on Tuesday formed a five-member committee to hold discussions on forging alliances with other parties for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, with senior party leader Mukul Wasnik as its convener. Other members of the national alliance committee are former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel. Former Union minister Salman Khurshid and senior leader Mohan Prakash are also members.

On suspension of Opposition MPs from Lok Sabha, Kharge stated: "We have passed a resolution that suspension is undemocratic. We will all have to fight to save democracy and all of us are ready to do that. We raised the issue of security breach in the Parliament. We have been saying for a long time that Union home minister Amit Shah or Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come to the Parliament and speak in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha about the issue, but they are refusing to do so."

The Congress president stated that in the meeting, it has been decided to hold a nationwide protest against the suspension of MPs on December 22. "This is the first time 151 members of Parliament have been suspended in the country. We will fight against this. This is wrong. We have united to fight against this," he further stated.

Senior leaders who attended the meeting included Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav, M.K. Stalin, Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah, Uddhav Thackrey, Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar.