Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal float Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as PM face

New Delhi, December 19

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday proposed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s name as the opposition INDIA bloc’s prime ministerial candidate, underscoring that he could be the first Dalit to hold the post.

The proposal from TMC supremo Mamata and AAP chief Kejriwal came at the crucial meeting of the opposition bloc here. Confirming this, participants at the meeting said Kharge responded by saying that it was “important to win elections first and increase the strength of the alliance while everything else could be decided later”. Leaders of 28 opposition parties attended the meeting and discussed the way forward, including seat-sharing, for taking on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Kharge said the INDIA bloc parties would focus on seat-sharing at the state level. “If there is a problem, the top leadership of the parties will intervene to sort out the tangle,” he said.

On his name being proposed for the PM’s post, he said if there weren’t enough MPs, there was no point discussing the issue. “To increase our numbers, all of us will fight unitedly and try to attain the majority. What someone has proposed in the meeting is an internal affair,” he said.

The Congress chief said a resolution was passed in the meeting condemning the suspension of Opposition MPs in Parliament. “INDIA parties will hold a protest over the issue on December 22,” he said.

Reiterating doubts about the integrity of EVMs, INDIA parties said instead of VVPAT slips should be handed over to the voter who shall then place it in a separate ballot box after verifying his or her choice.