Mamata made a ‘Dalit PM’ look but did not accept Kharge’s name: Leader of the Cong

The topic of the PM face came up at the opposition INDIA bloc’s fourth meeting when Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who will challenge Prime Minister Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, received support from Mamata Banerjee, the leader of the Trinamool Party, and Arvind Kejriwal, the convener of the Aam Aadmi Party. While Congress leader PJ Joseph said Mamata did not adopt Kharge’s moniker and that the coalition would benefit if it projected a “Dalit PM,” Kharge rejected the idea and stated that the priority should be winning the elections.

“She made no such suggestion. Mamata Banerjee said that projecting a Dalit prime minister would be beneficial during her speech. She refrained from mentioning anyone’s name. Because she spoke last, there was little discussion of the issue, the Congress leader told news agency ANI. The Congress refrained from providing a formal response to this idea, and Kharge said during the press conference that discussing the PM face at this time was pointless. “We must all succeed first, so let’s consider what has to be done to get there. It will be determined later who will be the PM. Is there any need to discuss PM if there are fewer MPs? First, by uniting, we shall attempt to bring a majority in order to grow our numbers. We’ll aim to win first,” Kharge said.

Insiders claim that Kharge rejected the proposal because he never adopted Dalit caste politics and instead supported the equality that he battled for throughout his political career. He has been serving the underprivileged and has never presented himself as a head of a caste.

The designation of Kharge as the bloc’s PM face did not sit well with the RJD and JD(U). Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar left the meeting early so they could not attend the news conference.

During the fourth meeting of the INDIA bloc, a decision was made to resume the seat-sharing negotiations and to have some kind of settlement on seat-sharing in place by the end of the year among the states.

Meanwhile, the UP Congress pushed Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Kharge to run from the state in the Lok Sabha 2024. The party has historically maintained bases in Rae Bareli and Amethi, two politically significant states in Uttar Pradesh. According to UP Congress president Ajay Rai, “the Gandhi family has a personal rapport with the people of these constituencies.”