Bengaluru meet: Congress to project 'mass leader' Rahul Gandhi as opposition's PM candidate

Rahul Gandhi, who is attending the second opposition meeting in Bengaluru today, is going to be projected as the opposition's Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2024 polls, party leaders said on Monday. -- Reports ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi:The Congress on Monday said that Rahul Gandhi had emerged not only as the leader of the party but that of the entire opposition. “Rahul Gandhi is the mass leader in the Congress and also in the opposition. In the last meeting, everybody praised him for the Bharat Jodo Yatra,” AICC in charge of organization KC Venugopal said in Bengaluru when asked about the former MP’s role in the opposition block.

According to party insiders, Venugopal was referring to the first opposition meeting held in Bihar’s capital Patna on June 23, when RJD leader Lalu Prasad said Rahul should get ready to become a groom and all the opposition leaders would then join the marriage procession. Though Lalu Prasad had made the remark in a lighter vein, it was seen in political circles as the former Bihar chief minister’s indirect hint to lead the entire opposition bloc ahead of the 2024 national polls.

Before that, Bihar chief minister and JD-U leader Nitish Kumar had stated that he had no objection to Rahul being declared the opposition’s prime ministerial candidate. Accordingly, Rahul, who is attending the second opposition meeting in Bengaluru on Monday, along with former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, is going to get that kind of projection over the coming days, said senior party leaders.

“For the entire Congress, there is no doubt that Rahul Gandhi is our prime ministerial candidate for 2024. Since the Bharat Jodo Yatra, he has emerged as the most prominent opposition leader in the country,” AICC secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh CD Meyappan told ETV Bharat. According to Meyappan, a similar sentiment was expressed by party MP Manickam Tagore who said a few months ago that the party should announce Rahul Gandhi as the prime minister in order to counter PM Modi.

"I entirely support that statement. The Congress should make that kind of announcement. Not only Rahul deserves the top post, his candidature will also be a deterrent to PM Modi. Also, since numbers count in a democracy, the Congress is the only national party in the opposition block, has a presence in all the 543 Lok Sabha seats and will certainly emerge as the single largest party in the new Lok Sabha. It would be natural then that the Congress gets the prime ministerial post,” he said.

Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh said, “The leadership issue keeps resurfacing. What is this leadership (in government) that gave a clean chit to China over border incursion and is silent over burning Manipur? The real issue is to safeguard the Constitution together and that is why these 26 parties have gathered at Bengaluru.”

Ramesh stressed that Rahul’s yatra had united the opposition which was now coming together for a bigger purpose but was careful to avoid any mention of the top post. “People’s issues like jobs, price rise, economy and national security are more important and need to be addressed today. We will keep meeting and come out with our agenda,” he added.