Rahul Gandhi Reaches Out To Nitish Kumar Over Kharge-For-PM Call

Days after reports emerged that Nitish Kumar was not happy with the proposal of Mallikarjun Kharge being the Prime Minister's face, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reached out to the Bihar Chief Minister on Friday, India Today reported citing sources.

Gandhi has given a clarification to Kumar over Kharge's name being proposed for the PM's face by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Rahul and Nitish, in their telephonic discussion, spoke about the alliance and cabinet expansion. However, the Bihar CM informed Gandhi that Kharge's name as the PM face at the INDIA bloc meeting. Sources indicate that Nitish also gave assurance to Rahul Gandhi, expressing readiness to augment the count of Congress ministers in the cabinet whenever required.

Further, regarding the delay in cabinet expansion, Nitish attributed it to the lack of clarity from Lalu Yadav's side.

At the fourth meeting of the alliance, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal proposed the name of Kharge as the PM face. MDMK's Vaiko and other leaders confirmed that Banerjee and Kejriwal proposed Kharge's name for the PM face of the alliance so that he could be the country's first Dalit prime minister.

Meanwhile, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi says, "The media did not talk about unemployment in the country. But it talked about Rahul Gandhi recording a video where suspended MPs were sitting outside the Parliament..."

At INDIA bloc protest is held at Jantar Mantar on Friday. Speaking at the event, Rahul Gandhi targeted the government on the recent Parliament breach. He said, "2-3 youth entered Parliament and released smoke. At this BJP MPs ran away. In this incident, there is the question of security breach, but there is another question of why they protested this way. The answer is unemployment in the country."