West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday proposed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's name as the prime ministerial candidate of opposition bloc INDIA, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko said after the meeting of the grouping.
However, the veteran Congress leader said it is important to win first and everything else can be decided later.
Significantly, while Vaiko said Kharge's name was proposed by Banerjee and Kejriwal, other leaders, on the condition of anonymity, maintained that there was no final decision on the issue during the meeting.
After his name was proposed as a candidate to become the country's first Dalit prime minister at a meeting attended by 28 opposition leaders here, Kharge said, "I work for the downtrodden. Let's win first, then we will see. I don't seek anything."
"First we have to win and get a majority, then MPs will decide democratically," Kharge when asked if he could be the PM candidate for the opposition alliance.
Banerjee after her arrival in the national capital on Monday, had told reporters that any decision on the prime ministerial face of the alliance will be taken after the election.
"When so many political parties are together, it is a democracy, with different states, different views and different opinions, but ultimately INDIA is a platform where we are fighting together," said Banerjee.
"The BJP doesn't have any allies. The NDA is gone. We are not like that. It will be better, after the elections, we have to see the results, and then announce the PM candidate. All parties will decide that," she had said.
"You can decide how a party can do better for the people and motherland. You have to give priority to the people of India. What is going on right now is autocracy, which is not desired by anyone," she said.
According to a senior Congress leader, the constituents of the opposition alliance intend to move forward with the theme "Main Nahin, Hum (We, Not Me)" at the meeting.
The meeting began at the Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi with Kharge, Gandhis, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in attendance besides NCP supremo Sharad Pawar.
Among the leaders present at the meeting are former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's TR Baalu, Communist Party of India-Marxist's Sitaram Yechury, Rashtriya Janata Dal's Tejashwi Yadav, Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav, Communist Party of India's D Raja, National Conference's Farooq Abdullah, ET Mohammed Basheer (Indian Union Muslim League), EK Elangovan, Revolutionary Socialist Party's NK Premchandran, Kerala Congress-Mani's Jose K Mani, Nationalist Congress Party's Supriya Sule and Jharkhand Mukti Morch's Mahua Maji, among others.
