The Congress is huddling for damage control after West Bengals Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee proposed the name of veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge as the Oppositions prime ministerial candidate, an MLA of Janata Dal (United) has hinted at divide over the proposal. Gopal Mandal, who is MLA from Gopalpur assembly constituency of Bhagalpur, has insisted on naming Bihars Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the Opposition PM candidate. According to the MLA, Nitish can defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.#WATCH | Bhagalpur, Bihar: JDU MLA Gopal Mandal says, People will not acknowledge, they dont know whos Mallikarjun Kharge. Now that youve mentioned his name, I got to know it. I didnt even know that he is the national president of Congress...Nobody knows him. Common people… pic.twitter.com/Ph4GY9Adre— ANI (@ANI) December 22, 2023The JD (U) leader gave a controversial statement by saying that people dont know Mallikarjun Kharge and even he wasnt aware that Kharge was Congress president. While he said that people know who Nitish Kumar is.Speaking to the news agency, ANI, the JD (U) MLA said, People will not acknowledge, they dont know whos Mallikarjun Kharge. Now that youve mentioned his name, I got to know it. I didnt even know that he is the national president of Congress. Nobody knows him. Common people dont know him, they know whos Nitish Kumar. Hell become the Prime Minister as everybody knows him.Bengal CM proposes Nitish for PM candidate: ReportsAccording to the media reports, Mamata Banerjee proposed the name of senior Congressman Mallikarjun Kharge as the convener of the alliance and prime ministerial candidate in the India bloc meeting on Thursday. Reports also claimed that the proposal was backed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.Meanwhile, Mallikarjun Kharge refused to reveal the details of the proposal and said that the priority of the INDIA bloc is to win the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.However, in responding to the ongoing situation, Nitish Kumar said that his primary goal is to unite the Opposition against the BJP. Reports also claimed that Nitish harbours aspirations for the top leadership position in the opposition alliance.
