On occasion of the annual conclave of the Telugu Desam Party,Andhra Pradesh minister Kalava Srinivasulu has come out strongly against the Congress party, saying that Rahul Gandhi cannot be the face of the united front. According to a Business Standard report, he attacked the Congress, saying the party is still hated by the Telugus for indiscriminately dividing the Telugu state. He made it very clear that the Telugu Desam Party and the Congress party would never join hands. Kalava Srinivasulu said, “We are 100 percent clear that the prime minister will not be from the BJP or the Congress. Rahul Gandhi will not be the prime ministerial face of a united front in case such an alternative comes into being with the support of the Congress”. He further added, “After the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, regional parties will play a major role at the Centre. The TDP will decide who will be the next prime minister”.
Since 2014, Congress has lost its voter base and now it’s no longer a powerful force like it was earlier. No one is ready to accept Rahul Gandhi as the leader of the united opposition against the BJP. For the Congress it’s all about stopping BJP from coming to power, for the regional party it’s all about their survival. They do not want to risk their survival by accepting Rahul Gandhi as the PM face. Not just opposition parties even the citizens of India do not want to see Rahul Gandhi becoming the PM of India. In that case if regional parties accept Rahul Gandhi as their leader then voters who are loyal to the regional parties would cast their votes against them.This is probably the main reason why most of the parties in the anti-Modi alliance don’t want to see Rahul Gandhi as their leader.
Chief Minister of Telangana, Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao also avoided attending HD Kumaraswamy swearing-in-ceremony so that he wouldn’t have to share the stage with the Gandhis. He pitched for federal front as both anti-BJP and anti-Congress. Mamta Banerjee has her own ambitions as well, she has also made it clear that the alliance cannot be led by Rahul Gandhi. Both the SP and the BSP have declared their respective supremos as PM candidates. Besides the regional parties are quite aware of the cons of declaring Rahul Gandhi as the PM candidate of anti-Modi alliance before the 2019 General Elections. .
The Congress is now left with NCP’s Sharad Pawar, DMK and the Sitaram Yechury faction of the left. It seems nobody wants to associate themselves with the Congress, and especially with Rahul Gandhi under whom the Congress lost elections one after another. Even after losing so many elections Rahul Gandhi is still dreaming to become the Prime Minister. Moongeri Lal Ke Haseen Sapne…