Congress ready to accept any non-RSS person as PM candidate

New Delhi, July 24: The Congress is ready to accept any candidate from among the Opposition as the next prime minister who does not have the backing of the RSS, party sources said today.

To prevent the BJP from coming back to power in 2019, the Congress will look to cobble up alliances with various parties in states, they said.

On whether Congress president Rahul Gandhi will step aside for a woman candidate from a possible Opposition alliance, the sources said he "is comfortable seeing any prime minister other than an RSS-backed one".

Let's see how the dice rolls, the sources said.

There is speculation in the Opposition camp that a woman prime ministerial candidate may be projected in the next elections and names of BSP leader Mayawati and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee are doing the rounds.

According to the sources, the Congress leadership is of the view that the BJP will be decimated without any "anger and disrespect".

The BJP will not get enough seats to win the next general polls as parties like the TDP, the Shiv Sena are not happy with the saffron party, the sources added.

For Narendra Modi to be the prime minister again, he has to get seats in the range of 280 and that is not going to happen, they said.

PTI