Rahul Gandhi, not Nitish Kumar, to be alliance’s PM choice: Congress

NEW DELHI: A riled Congress has stated that there can be only one prime ministerial candidate from the alliance it is part of, as the party believes that Nitish Kumar's decision to thumb his nose at the "secular camp" over the currency ban is aimed at carving an independent image for himself with 2019 contest in mind.

The JD(U) chief's surprise move to back the Modi government over demonetisation has triggered concern as well as anger in Congress which is the largest of the parties in the protest mode. For the outfit which helped persuade Lalu Prasad to accept Kumar as the face of Bihar alliance, the Bihar chief minister's stance is seen as a terrible blow.

"We lay great store by this protest against the currency ban. It is led by Rahul Gandhi and we have suffered a setback from one of our trusted leaders. We are hurt," a key Congress leader said.

According to Congress insiders, Kumar has donned the role of a maverick as he is angling for the pole position for the Lok Sabha elections. In that case, he will have the option of either emerging the head of "regional parties or third front" or of a remote post-poll scenario where BJP has to back an outsider for the top post.

"But two leaders of the same alliance — Rahul and Kumar — cannot be the contenders for Bihar votes," a senior leader said, laying down that Congress would not brook any challenge to its lead position in the parliamentary polls.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad's telephonic complaint to Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi was aimed at alerting the lead alliance partner about Kumar's growing autonomy veering towards softness to BJP, even though there is no questioning the JD(U) chief's primacy in the ruling combine.

Congress sources said Kumar has multiple reasons to jolt the alliance. The immediate provocation seems to be that RJD is preparing to seek a higher share in the nomination of heads of the state corporations. There are other issues of governance on which Kumar wants to distance himself from Lalu Prasad.