Projecting CM face for Assembly poll is mere “fantasy”: Cong MLA Priyank Kharge

PTI, Jun 24, 2021, 2:13 PM IST

Bengaluru: Congress MLA Priyank M Kharge on Thursday dismissed talk of projecting a Chief Ministerial face in the next Assembly elections in Karnataka as some people’s fantasy and said it would be fought under a collective leadership.

On some MLAs favouring projecting Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah as the party’s candidate for the post, Kharge said that might be their personal view but it does not work like that in the party.

”There is a procedure for all these things. They are going to consult the CLP (Congress Legislative Party).

Elections are really far (two years) away. The question of who will become CM arises only when you have a majority,” he told PTI.

Recent days have seen at least half a dozen Congress MLAs pitching for Siddaramaiah, bringing factionalism in the party to the fore.

Some are also reportedly pushing the case of state party chief D K Shivakumar.

Kharge said talks about who is going to be the CM or CM candidate is completely a waste of time.

The son of the veteran Congress leader M Mallikarjun Kharge said the focus now should be on trying to reach and help as many people as possible during the pandemic, expose BJP’s ”duplicity” in vaccination programme, building the party cadre from the grassroots level and go to elections with a ”united front”.

He took a dig at MLAs who publicly expressed their choice of CM candidate.

”We have always done so (faced elections) with united strategy from day one. Nothing new. Problem is some of the few people who claim things have just come to Congress. They still need to understand how cogs and wheels work in the Congress,” Kharge said.

On some in the Congress favouring projecting a CM face, he said it was never done in Karnataka.

”You know how Congress works across the country”.

Did we have CM face in Assembly elections in Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh? Kharge asked. An exception was made in Punjab where the party had a sitting CM.

”There (Punjab) also people are asking…let’s go unitedly. There also, there is a problem (there) because of these kinds of things,” according to him.

”It’s all a few people’s fantasy,” Kharge said on talk of projecting a CM nominee for the Assembly elections in Karnataka.

”We cannot allow the party to be the sacrificial lamb. So, collective leadership is the way to go forward. We will do so like that,” he added.