Bengaluru:Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday apparently brushed aside any speculation to launch Rahul Gandhi as the party's Prime Ministerial face saying his party is neither interested in PM post nor in power.
“I had already said in Chennai, on MK Stalin’s birthday, that Congress is not interested in power or the post of Prime Minister. Our intention in this meeting is not to gain power for ourselves. It is to protect our Constitution, Democracy, Secularism and Social Justice,” Kharge said in a statement at the Opposition meet.
He also used the Opposition meet in Bengaluru as a platform to hit out at the BJP, which he said, is "running from state to state" to patch up with old allies. "We are 26 parties, in government in 11 states; BJP didn't get 303 seats by itself, used votes of allies then discarded them," he said at the meting.
The leaders, who gathered in Bengaluru had a dinner meeting in the evening on Monday to formalise the agenda for Tuesday's closed-door talks. There is a high possibility that Sonia Gandhi, who was the chairperson of UPA, will be named the President of the Front, and Nitish Kumar the Convenor, sources said. Besides Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, chief ministers MK Stalin, Nitish Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal, Hemant Soren, Mamata Banerjee and RJD chief Lalu Prasad are among those taking part in the two-day meet. Sharad Pawar, whose party underwent a split earlier this month with the rebellion of nephew Ajit Pawar, has joined the meeting.