On 22/7/2018 Congress Working Committee and declared Rahul Gandhi as Opposition’s PM candidate. Congress was to enter into alliances with regional parties.
On 24/7/2018 Tejashwi Yadav said “All the opposition parties will sit and decide the name of the Prime Ministerial candidate. Rahul Gandhi is not the only leader in the race for it. There are other opposition leaders like Mamata Banerjee, Chandrababu Naidu, Sharad Pawar and Mayawati.”
There was no official reaction from Congress to Tejashwi Yadav’s statement. Unofficially Congress was open to an outsider as PM candidate if that leader’s party gets enough numbers in Lok Sabha or lack of consensus on Rahul Gandhi.
Opposition has many PM candidates. According to Mamata Banerjee’s criteria she and Naveen Patnaik are only two in Opposition who are suitable to be PM. Mayawati is bargaining for seats with Congress and said there will be no alliance if her party does not get respectable number of seats. Chandrababu Naidu said he does not want to be PM. He had opportunity in the past but did not take up the offer. Sharad Pawar’s party is unlikely to have many MPs.
Parties like TRS and TDP will not be part of coalition where Congress is a member. AIADMK will not be part of a coalition where DMK is a member. Tamil parties like DMDK, MDMK, PMK may go with Congress or BJP. JDS may support Congress if the alliance lasts till Lok Sabha elections. Sheila Dikshit and Ajay Maken do not want alliance with AAP and their view has prevailed.
Tejashwi Yadav has shown he is no pushover in politics. When talk of Nitish Kumar’s return to alliance with RJD and Congress was going on Tejashwi Yadav said Nitish Kumar is not welcome in the alliance. One Congress leader said who is Tejashwi Yadav to decide on alliance. Congress leaders were divided about accepting Nitish Kumar. Tejashwi Yadav said he did not want Nitish Kumar back even if he makes him CM. Nitish Kumar continues with BJP.
There is possibility of Shiv Sena supporting Congress. BJP is ready to contest all 48 Lok Sabha seats and 288 Legislative Assembly seats alone. Shiv Sena did not vote against No Confidence Motion in Lok Sabha. Narendra Modi should have dismissed Anant Geete as minister.
There is SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati does not want to give any seat to Congress and other parties. SP wants to give two seats to Congress and one seat to RLD. Congress messed up in UP. It hired Prashant Kishor for strategy. It wanted to go alone in state election. Prashant Kishore suggested three choices as CM candidate. First was Rahul Gandhi. Second was Priyanka Gandhi. Third was Sheila Dikshit. The slogan was Saththaavees saal, UP behaal. Congress was to be alternative for 27 years of misrule in UP. Then something changed. It seems Priyanka Gandhi wanted alliance with SP. Congress entered into alliance with SP. It was a disaster.
BJD is against both BJP and Congress.
Victory in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh state elections in no guarantee of victory in Lok Sabha elections that follow. In 2003 BJP won in those three states and was confident of winning in Lok Sabha elections. That did not happen.
