Business Standard

Kharge as PM candidate: A pre-election gambit

Umbrella parties with no fundamental commitment to OBC or Dalit politics are not known to have gained electorally from such opportunistic pivoting

Mallikarjun Kharge
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File image of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge

A day after she had claimed that the prime ministerial candidate of the INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc would be decided after the general election results, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took an about-turn. She proposed the name of Congress president 80-year-old Mallikarjun Kharge as the alliance's prime ministerial face in the meeting of alliance partners on December 19.

The mercurial and unpredictable Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seconded her. "This is a chance to have the country's first Dalit Prime Minister," he is reported to have claimed.

Were Banerjee and Kejriwal proposing Kharge as
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