IT’S OKAY IF CONG DOESN’T GET PM’S POST, SAYS AZAD
The Congress is not averse to supporting any regional party leader for the Prime Minister’s post even if it emerges as the single largest party, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Thursday. “My party high command has already made it clear that the Congress is not averse to making a prime minister from any regional party,” Azad told reporters here.
The Congress is not averse to supporting any regional party leader for the Prime Minister’s post even if it emerges as the single largest party, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Thursday. “My party high command has already made it clear that the Congress is not averse to making a prime minister from any regional party,” Azad told reporters here.
He was asked if the Congress will be ready to support any regional party leader for the PM’s post even if it emerges as the largest party in a hung Parliament.
Speaking in the same vein in Patna on Wednesday, Azad had said the Congress will not make it an issue if the PM’s post is not offered to it. The Congress leader said that it would be better if the opposition parties arrived at a consensus on the Congress leader’s name to lead the government after the election results were announced on May 23.
“However, it does not mean that the Congress would not allow leaders of any other constituents to become the PM, in case the Congress is not offered the chance,” Azad said the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters on Wednesday.
Azad’s remarks assume significance as the Congress has been asserting that it would be the fulcrum of any non-NDA government, which was seen as its claim for the PM’s post and had led some major regional parties to maintain a distance from it.
“It will be good if there is a consensus on Congress leader’s name for heading the government at the Centre after the LS poll results are out but we are not going to make it an issue that we (Congress) will not let any other (leader) to become the PM, if it is not offered to us,” Azad had said in Patna, in an apparent mellowing of Congress’s stand.
The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha had said the sole objective of the Congress is to stop the NDA from forming the government at the Centre and installing a non-NDA government. Both, PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah have criticised the Opposition for not naming prime ministerial candidate.