CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury while addressing a joint rally of the CEI and the CPI in Ludhiana said that his party will not accept Mamata Banerjee as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the Mahagathbandan, reports Amar Ujala. Yechury said who will be the Prime Minister will be decided after the elections.
Although CPI(M) and TMC are part of the Mahagathbandan out of compulsion to prevent BJP coming back to power, they are bitter enemies in the state of West Bengal. In 2011, Mamata Banerjee had grabbed power in the state, ending the 34-year long rule of CPI(M) government in the state. Therefore, the communists can’t back Mamata Banerjee as the alliance candidate for the post of Prime Minister, even though none of the CPI(M) leaders is eyeing the post themselves like leaders of other parties in the grand alliance.
The proposed Mahagathbandhan, a bunch of leaders with personal ambitions, is finding it difficult to agree on the name of its Prime Ministerial candidate. While some leaders want this decision to be made after the elections, there are others who have already proposed some names with some proposing their own names.
Last year DMK President M K Stalin had endorsed the name of Congress President Rahul Gandhi as the PM candidate. Even Rahul Gandhi himself had expressed the desire to be the PM candidate if other opposition parties agree to it. Raising serious objections on the name of Rahul Gandhi as the PM candidate, the Trinamool Congress had said that the decision will be taken after the 2019 General election results are out. However, Mamata Banerjee has not shied away from expressing her own intentions to be the PM candidate.
Next in the line to reject Rahul Gandhi’s name was NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, who had also expressed ‘happiness’ over Rahul Gandhi not being in the race for the post of Prime Minister. Joining the cacophony was the Bahujan Samaj Party which, while projecting its supremo Mayawati as the PM candidate, came out with a unique reason to oppose the candidature of Rahul Gandhi for PM’s post. The Party said that Rahul Gandhi cannot be the Prime Minister as his mother is of foreign origin.
Recently Samajwadi Party was seen putting up posters of Akhilesh Yadav as the PM candidate in Lucknow. The posters read, “We trust in Akhilesh- The country needs a new PM”. The latest joining the band of aspirants is former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha who when asked about who in his view was the closest person to have the abilities to be the PM, said that the closest was him.
The race for the PM candidate does not seem to end and is rather being joined by a new aspirant with each passing day.