Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge addressed various rallies in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh on Saturday. The state is scheduled to vote in the seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha elections 2024 on June 1. When asked about the INDIA bloc’s prime ministerial candidate, Mallikarjun Kharge seemed upset and said, “It’s like asking ‘Kaun Banega crorepati’.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has attempted to corner the Opposition INDIA bloc over not announcing the prime ministerial candidate and even said that all leaders in the Opposition alliance are candidates to become the prime minister.
“If we form the government, all the leaders will decide who will be their PM,” Mallikarjun Kharge was quoted by NDTV as saying during a press conference in Himachal Pradesh’s capital, Shimla. He mentioned the ten years of the UPA regime and said that no prime ministerial candidate was announced before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
“In 2004, Congress leaders wanted Sonia Gandhi to be the Prime Minister, but she refused. We didn’t have the majority, we had 140 seats. We returned to power in 2009 with 209 seats. We formed the UPA alliance and ran the government for ten years,” he said.
Mallikarjun Kharge also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said he made big promises in 2014 and 2019 but never fulfilled them. “The Prime Minister made big promises in 2014 and 2019 but did not look back after that. He did not help Himachal Pradesh when a natural disaster struck it. The BJP is working to topple governments in the country and has tried to destabilise the Congress government of Himachal,” the Congress President said.
Himachal Pradesh Lok Sabha elections 2024
The elections for the 4 Parliamentary Constituency of Himachal Pradesh will be conducted on June 1, the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections, and this time, many high-profile leaders are competing against each other in the hill state.
The contest for the Mandi Lok Sabha seat is expected to make headlines. Popular actor Kangana Ranaut (BJP) is going against Vikramaditya Singh (Congress), the son of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
In Kangra, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma is contesting against Dr Rajiv Bhardwaj from the BJP. The contest is going to be interesting as Anand Sharma has been sidelined in the Congress since his association with the members of G-23, the senior leaders who wanted leadership changes in Congress.
Union Minister Anurag Thakur is fighting to save his Hamirpur seat and is up against Congress MLA from Una Raizada. In Shimla, BJP’s incumbent MP, Suresh Kashyap, is going against Kasauli MLA Vinod Sultanpuria.
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Published: 25 May 2024, 10:22 PM IST