INDIA Bloc Meeting Concluded: Mamata Banerjee Proposes Mallikarjun Kharge’s Name for PM Candidate

The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc met in New Delhi on Tuesday, 19 December, after mass suspensions of MPs from the Parliament for the second consecutive day. The strategies for seat sharing for the 2024 Lok sabha elections and probable names for the PM face were discussed in the meeting.

PM Candidate

Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of Bengal, who had said yesterday that the INDIA bloc will not put forward a name for the Prime Ministerial candidate until after the Lok Sabha election, made a complete 180-degree turn today and put forward the name of Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge for the role.

Most senior leaders including Sharad Pawar (NCP), Mamata Banerjee (TMC), Lalu Yadav (RJD), Nitish Kumar (JD(U)), Sonia Gandhi (Congress), Rahul Gandhi (Congress), Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Arvind Kejriwal (AAP), MK Stalin (DMK), and Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) were present in the meeting.

28 parties had taken part in today’s mega meet of the INDIA bloc, which is one of the many in the days to come. Mr Kharge said they would hold multiple meets across various cities. “Unless we do that we cannot raise people’s awareness,” Mr Kharge said.

Sources claim, that twelve of the participating parties, applauded the plan of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge as the face of the PM candidate. Even Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal supported the idea. “This is a chance to have the country’s first Dalit Prime Minister,” sources quoted him as saying.

However, Kharge refused the proposal. He said “No need for this suggestion, after the election only we can decide who is the PM. He immediately rejected this point,” he said.
“We have to win first and think what to do to win. What is the point in discussing PM before having MPs? We will try to get a majority together,” Kharge added.

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How the meeting Concluded

At the INDIA Alliance meeting, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said, “The meeting was good. The campaigning, seat sharing, and everything will begin soon. No (convenor hasn’t been selected) yet.”

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “All parties are ready to hit the ground after the distribution of tickets very soon. I have said from the first day that the strategy of INDIA Alliance will be PDA. We will defeat BJP. UP mein 80 harao aur loktantra bachao.”

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said “Leaders of 28 political parties of the INDIA Alliance were present here in the fourth meeting held here today. 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 HM Amit Shah or PM Modi should come to the Parliament and speak in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha about the issue of Parliament security breach, but they are refusing to do so. This is the first time 151 members of the parliament have been suspended in the country. We will fight against this, this is wrong. We have united to fight against this. We have decided to hold a protest against the suspension of MPs on 22nd December.”

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“There was a reference to the common minimum program. Now, it has been decided first to take up the issue of suspension of MPs because it is an onslaught on our democracy, it is an attack on our parliamentary system. So there should be protests across the country and the call has been given for a mass protest… Nothing (on the PM candidate). We have given a call for mass protest across the country in all state headquarters on 22nd (December). We should conclude the seat-sharing arrangement as early as possible, and we’ll have to put up a strong collective fight against BJP.” CPI General Secretary D Raja said.

Congress MP and general secretary KC Venugopal said, “It was a very successful, fruitful meeting. Everybody opened their mind and spoke, there was a little criticism here and there because we are 25-26 parties. The main focus was to finalize the seat sharing. A lot many things were discussed but everything can not be decided today itself. Seat-sharing discussions should be started immediately, that is what was discussed.”