Can support opposition nominee for PM: Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress would be willing to accept a non RSS backed prime minister after the 2019 polls if the circumstance so warrants, a top Congress functionary has said.

“Congress would be willing to accept any candidate from an opposition party. We are comfortable seeing any prime minister other than an RSS-backed one,” the functionary said in New Delhi on Tuesday. Congress at the moment is stitching up alliances with various political parties in different states.

On whether Congress president Rahul Gandhi would step aside for a woman candidate from a possible opposition alliance, the functionary said he would be happy with “an opposition party candidate”.


The party functionary’s answer to a hypothetical question came on a day BSP supremo Mayawati indicated to Congress that her party would be a part of an alliance in three northern states going to the polls by the yearend only if it was given a respectable number of seats.

“BSP wants to tell Congress leaders talking about an alliance with BSP in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh that the same condition applies to Congress as well.” Congress is reportedly eager about an alliance with BSP in MP and Chhattisgarh but reluctant of a similar tie-up in Rajasthan for the assembly elections. As per sources, the Congress leadership is of the view that BJP would be decimated without any “anger or disrespect.”