Kharge Prefers Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister for 'INDIA' Alliance

With the seventh phase of voting concluding on Saturday, the Lok Sabha elections in India will finally come to an end. Later that afternoon, the 'INDIA' alliance, led by the Congress and comprising various opposition parties, will meet in Delhi. The plan was to discuss who would be the prime minister if they came to power. However, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has already announced Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate.

Several Indian media outlets, including NDTV, reported that Kharge expressed his preference during an interview with a television channel on Friday afternoon. He personally believes Rahul Gandhi is the most suitable leader for the prime minister position.

For the past few days, leaders from the Congress and the INDIA alliance have been claiming that they will come to power this time, and Narendra Modi will step down. Naturally, this raises the question: who will be the prime minister if the opposition forms the government?

In response to such questions, both Kharge and a prominent alliance leader, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, had said two days earlier that the answer would be revealed only after the election results were announced. They suggested that the alliance had no shortage of leaders capable of becoming prime minister.

In addition to naming Rahul Gandhi as a suitable prime ministerial candidate, Congress President Kharge mentioned that he had hoped Priyanka Gandhi would make her debut in the electoral battle this time. He had envisioned her running from Rae Bareli, a seat historically associated with the Gandhi family, where Sonia Gandhi had won five consecutive terms. However, neither Sonia nor Priyanka Gandhi contested in this election. Instead, they were busy campaigning for the opposition alliance, and ultimately Rahul Gandhi became the candidate from Rae Bareli.

The question of who would be the prime minister if the INDIA alliance won had been a topic of discussion even before the elections. In a previous alliance meeting, some leaders, including Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal, had suggested Kharge as a potential prime ministerial candidate. However, the Congress did not agree to this proposal. When asked about this during the interview, Kharge chose not to elaborate further.