Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam on Saturday said that the Opposition should declare Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as a prime ministerial candidate to fight against PM Narendra Modi from Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
However, he maintained that it is up to Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi as to which seat they would want to fight the 2024 elections from. "If it comes to Priyanka, she should be named a PM candidate. It will then be a Modi vs Priyanka fight and the entire country and vote and decide," he said.
'No leader more popular than Priyanka Gandhi to defeat PM Modi'
Earlier in May, Krishnam had asked the opposition parties should declare Priyanka Gandhi as the next prime ministerial candidate as she has, ‘popular, acceptable and credible’.
Krishnam had claimed that there is no leader more popular, acceptable and credible than Priyanka Gandhi to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “If the Opposition wants to defeat PM Modi in 2024, then it has to bring forward a big face that is popular, credible and acceptable. I think there is no leader more popular, acceptable and credible than Priyanka Gandhi. I want to appeal to Opposition parties to declare her as PM candidate,” he had said.
Rahul Gandhi to contest from Amethi
On August 18, Congress' Uttar Pradesh chief Ajay Rai said that Rahul Gandhi will contest from Amethi seat while Priyanka Gandhi may contest from Varanasi in Lok Sabha elections 2024. He further said that the entire cadre, workers of the party are ready to support Vadra.
Taking a dig at Smriti Irani, the UP Congress chief asked Smriti Irani what happened to her promise of providing sugar at the rate of Rs 13 to the people of Amethi.
Rahul, who had been representing the Amethi Lok Sabha seat since 2004, suffered a shocking defeat in the Gandhi bastion in 2019 when he lost to BJP’s Smriti Irani.
Ajay Rai was the Congress candidate in Varanasi both during the 2014 and 2019 elections and lost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
