Jairam Ramesh backs Pawar in PM face row

After Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal pitched for Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the prime ministerial face of the INDIA front, there has been much controversy and heartburn amongst the leaders of the alliance.

Sharad Pawar was the first to reject the proposal, noting that the PM face should be decided only after Lok Sabha results.

In a first, the Congress has broken its silence on the issue, with media department head and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh agreeing with Pawar.

“I agree with him. Congress has always believed that the PM face should not be announced immediately. We are not a presidential system. We don’t decide the face first. We will wait to see what the results are,” he said.

Ramesh, however, refused to be dragged into the debate on whether the Congress was uncomfortable with Kharge as the PM face and if Rahul Gandhi should be the candidate in case Congress comes to power.

On Priyanka Vadra, the party is mum so far even as indications go that she may finally take the electoral plunge in 2024. “She is not just a star campaigner but a superstar campaigner. She has been relentless and indefatigable. We would want her to fulfil the role in Lok Sabha elections as well. Whether she wants to contest or not is up to her.”

Ramesh also said the alliance parties did not believe in muzzling one another. On the controversial issue of Udhayanidhi Stalin’s Sanatan Dharma comment and CPI(M)’s decision to skip the Ram Mandir inauguration on January 22, the veteran Congress leader said: “It’s the CPI(M)’s point of view. We are not here to muzzle anyone. They are entitled to it. There are issues which unite us, there are issues we have different points of view on. We discuss this internally and then decide.”

Asked if this would help BJP build an anti-Hindu perception of the alliance, he said: “This is what BJP’s media managers do. As an alliance, we have difference of opinion over many issues but there is unanimity on political solution.”

The leader also made it clear that the large number of suspensions of MPs would not be forgotten soon. On V-P Jagdeep Dhankhar’s statement that he “suffering” after being mocked, Ramesh said: “We all are suffering. Look, I don’t want to say anything about the chairperson or Speaker. We respect the post. But the fact is that they have to be neutral.”

The suspension of MPs and the fact that the INDIA front doesn’t feel the government has done enough on the Lok Sabha security breach will be the fulcrum of the alliance’s 2024 poll manifesto.