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Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday addressed various rallies in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh. The state is going to vote in the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 on June 1. When he was asked about the prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mallikarjun Kharge looked upset and said, “It is like asking ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has attempted to corner the opposition India camp for not announcing its prime ministerial candidate and even said that all the leaders of the opposition alliance are prime ministerial candidates.
“If we form the government, all the leaders will decide who will be their prime minister,” Mallikarjun Kharge told NDTV during a press conference in Himachal Pradesh’s capital Shimla. He referred to the 10 years of UPA government and said no prime ministerial candidate was announced before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
He said, “In 2004, Congress leaders wanted Sonia Gandhi to become the Prime Minister, but she refused. We did not have a majority, we had 140 seats. We returned to power in 2009 with 209 seats. We formed the UPA coalition and ran the government for ten years.”
Mallikarjun Kharge also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that he made big promises in 2014 and 2019 but never fulfilled them. The Congress president said, “The Prime Minister made big promises in 2014 and 2019 but never looked back after that. When a natural disaster struck Himachal Pradesh, he did not help it. The BJP is working to topple governments in the country and has tried to destabilize the Congress government in Himachal.”
Himachal Pradesh Lok Sabha Elections 2024
Elections for four parliamentary seats in Himachal Pradesh will be held on June 1, which is the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections and this time several high-profile leaders are contesting against each other in the hill state.
The contest on Mandi Lok Sabha seat is going to grab headlines. Famous actress Kangana Ranaut (BJP) is pitted against Vikramaditya Singh (Congress), son of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
In Kangra, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma is pitted against BJP’s Dr Rajiv Bhardwaj. The contest is going to be interesting as Anand Sharma has been sidelined in the Congress after joining the G-23 members, who are senior leaders seeking a change in leadership in the Congress.
Union minister Anurag Thakur is contesting to retain his Hamirpur seat and is pitted against Congress MLA from Una, Raizada. In Shimla, BJP’s sitting MP Suresh Kashyap is pitted against Kasauli MLA Vinod Sultanpuria.
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Published: May 25, 2024, 10:22 PM IST
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