Opposition alliance, known as I.N.D.I.A. alliance, has tough times before its constituents embark on for a crucial meet in Mumbai hosted by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The Daily Guardian spoke to one of the senior voices of Opposition and JDU leader KC Tyagi on future of the new alliance.
Q: Your party, Janata Dal (United) has demanded the projection of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2024 Parliamentary polls. What have you to say about this?
A: Workers and party leaders have their own personal opinion and nobody can stop them from expressing their views but the alliance has quite a number of PM faces like Nitish kumar, Rahul Gandhi, Mamta Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav and to name a few.
Q: BJP is targeting your alliance that you cannot choose a PM candidate.
A: Since we are a combination of like-minded parties and committed to a common agenda, we will not project any face for the 2024 polls.
Q: You say all is well in the alliance but recently in Delhi and now in the state of Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, there seems a face-off between Congress and AAP.
A: There are certain issues for which we are open to discussion in the Mumbai meeting and onething I want to clarify here is that the I.N.D.I.A alliance is for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and not for assembly polls.
Q: You said your party is intact but your alliance partner NCP is on a sticky wicket.
A: There is no chance of Sharad Pawar joining NDA. He is with us and he has even clarified that the leaders who have left NCP were under pressure from the central agencies.
TDG has learnt that the Mumbai meet of I.N.D.I. A. alliance would be crucial as it would decide the fate of seat sharing and would also name the Convenor for the like-minded parties at the meet.