United oppn should decide on PM candidate after 2019 polls: JD-S

June 10, 2018 10:12

A decision on the issue of prime ministership should taken by a united opposition after the Lok Sabha polls next year, Janata Dal-Secular secretary general Danish Ali said as he made a fervent appeal to all like-minded parties to come together and defeat the Bharatiya Janaat Party.

At a press conference in New Delhi, he cited three previous instances when the prime ministers were chosen post elections.

"We have in the past experienced that V P Singh emerged as the prime ministerial candidate only after the elections. In 1996, after the Lok Sabha elections, the United Front was formed and H D Deve Gowda became the prime minister. Similarly, Manmohan Singh was chosen the prime minister during UPA 1 after the elections," he said.

Ali said in a multi-party democracy, the issue of leadership comes after general elections.

"We have to decide by consensus who should be the prime minister," he said.

Expressing confidence that opposition parties will come together, Ali, who was a key player in the formation of the JDS-Congress government in Karnataka, said they have realised a multi-cornered contest will not help their cause.

He also said that there cannot be an alternative to the BJP without the Congress being part of a formation of opposition parties.

When his attention was drawn to states where the opposition parties were pitted against each other, he said the "parties can contest each other in those states where there is no threat from the BJP". -- PTI

Image: Opposition leaders at H D Kumaraswamy's swearing in as Karnataka chief minister, May 23, 2018. Photograph: Shailendra Bhojak/PTI Photo

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