New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge humorously said that asking who would be INDIA bloc’s prime ministerial candidate is like the 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' question in Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s show, according to NDTV.
However, Kharge made it clear at a press conference in Shimla that if INDIA bloc wins the polls, all the leaders of the alliance will decide their PM.
"If we form the government, all the leaders will decide who will be their PM," he was quoted as saying.
Kharge said that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was in power for ten years between 2004 and 2014 without having proposed a PM candidate before the elections.
"In 2004, Congress leaders wanted Sonia Gandhi to be the Prime Minister but she refused. We didn't have the majority, we had 140 seats. We returned to power in 2009 with 209 seats. We formed the UPA alliance and ran the government for 10 years," he was quoted as saying.
The 81-year-old was responding to the question of INDIA bloc’s prime ministerial choice which the BJP frequently raise in order to confound the alliance.
However, Kharge accused the BJP of lying to the country "when it talked about 2 crore jobs in 2014, when it talked about reducing inflation. Nothing happened".
Targeting the BJP he said that PM Modi has not fulfilled the ‘big promises’ he made in 2014 and 2019, adding that the Centre did not help Himachal Pradesh during the natural disaster it faced.
He alleged that the BJP is ‘working to topple governments in the country and has tried to destabilise the Congress government of Himachal.’
Polling for all four Himachal Pradesh Lok Sabha seats will take place on June 1 with results of the polls across the country coming out on June 4.