Mallikarjun Kharge turns down proposal to be INDIA alliance's PM candidate

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has turned down suggestion about being the prime ministerial candidate of the INDIA bloc for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and said the issue will be decided later and their first priority is to try and get a majority by working togetherVCK parliamentarian Thol Thirumavalavan told ANI after a meeting of INDIA bloc parties on Tuesday that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal proposed that Kharge should be the coordinator of the INDIA bloc and that he should be projected as the Prime Ministerial candidate in the Lok Sabha battleKharge responded to the issue during an interaction with the media after the INDIA block meetingFirst all of us have to win we should think about what needs to be done for victory Who will be PM this will be decided later If there are less MPs what is the point of talking about PM First to increase our numbers by coming together we will try to bring majority First we will try to win he saidKharge also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of arrogance after BJP won three of the five states where elections were held last monthThe VCK MP said that Kharge rejected the suggestion to be the prime ministerial face of the INDIA partiesMamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal proposed that Mallikarjun Kharge must be the coordinator of this INDIA team and we will project him as the Prime Minister in the forthcoming elections But Khargeji rejected this categorically He said no need for this suggestion after the election only we can decide who is the PM He immediately rejected this point Thirumavalavan told ANIHowever Kerala Congress leader PJ Joseph said Mamata Banerjee did not take any names and said that it will be good if the alliance projects a Dalit PMShe did not suggest so While she spoke Mamata Banerjee said that it would be good if we could project a Dalit PM She did not say the name of any person The matter was not discussed much because she spoke last Joseph told ANIKharge a former union minister belongs to the Dalit communityThe fourth meeting of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance INDIA bloc took place in the national capital on Friday and was attended by leaders from 28 partiesCongress leader KC Venugopal told reporters after the meeting that the seatsharing talks should start without delay and there is a proposal for joint rallies alsoThe meeting was held in the backdrop of escalating tensions between the government and the opposition over the suspension of parliamentarians during the winter session of Parliament An unprecedented 141 MPs have been suspended in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for misconduct most of them for the remainder of the winter session which concludes on December 22INDIA Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance parties are seeking to put a united challenge against the BJPled NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha pollsThe first meeting of the joint opposition convened in Patna on June 23 and the second meeting was held in Bengaluru on July 1718 The third meeting happened in Mumbai on August 31September 1In the Mumbai meeting the opposition parties adopted resolutions to collectively contest the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections while announcing that seatsharing arrangements would be finalized as soon as possible in a spirit of giveandtakeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever