Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin’s 70th birthday celebrations was attended by several prominent opposition leaders. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah were attended the event also being seen as an apparent show of opposition unity in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections to be held next year.
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During the event, Abdullah called on Stalin to propel himself on a national stage. However, he told Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge to forget on who is going to become the prime minister in 2024.
“Stalin, it’s time, come to the national scene and build the nation as you’ve built this state. To (Mallikarjun) Kharge Ji, I’ll say,let’s forget who’s going to become the PM. Let’s first win elections, then think who’ll become PM. PM doesn’t matter, nation matters”, ANI quoted the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister as saying.
Kharge replied, “All like-minded opposition parties should come together against the divisive forces. I never said who will lead or who will become PM. It’s not the question. We want to fight together unitedly, this is our desire”.
During its plenary session at Raipur last month, the Congress in its political resolution had called for unity of secular and socialist forces as the hallmark of the future of the Congress. The grand old party said it should go all out to identify, mobilise and align like-minded secular forces.
“ We should include secular regional forces who agree with our ideology. There is an urgent need for a united opposition to take on the NDA on common ideological grounds. Emergence of any third force will provide advantage to the BJP/NDA”, the Congress resolution said.