New Delhi [India]: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday clarified his party’s stance after party spokesperson Priyanka Kakkkar said she would personally like to see Arvind Kejriwal as the next Prime Minister.
Rai said like every party AAP memebers too wanted to see their party convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as the prime ministerial candidate for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
However, the AAP leader added that the prime ministerial candidate will be decided by the opposition bloc-INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance).
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, the minister Gopal Rai said, “Every party wants their leader to become the Prime Minister. The Aam Aadmi Party also wants our national convenor to become the prime minister. But the prime ministerial candidate of INDIA bloc will be decided by the opposition alliance,”.
He was responding to party spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar’s earlier comments, saying that she would want to see Arvind Kejriwal become the next Prime Minister.
Speaking to media on Wednesday, Kakkar said, “If you ask me, I would want Arvind Kejriwal to be the Prime Ministerial candidate (of the Opposition alliance).”
She added that the AAP convenor has been highlighting issues of the public and has emerged as a credible challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hold on the country’s highest office.
“Be it the PM’s academic records or qualifications or any other issue, Arvind Kejriwal has been putting across his views boldly on myriad subjects,” Kakkar told media.
The INDIA alliance members are meeting in Mumbai on Aug 30 and Aug 31. Arvind Kejriwal will be attending the meeting. This is the second meeting that the AAP will participate in after skipping the first meeting of the alliance in Patna.
A total of 26 to 27 parties are likely to participate in the third meeting of the newly formed opposition alliance. The meeting will see discussions on the bloc’s strategies ahead of the upcoming state elections and the all-important general elections next year. The logo of the Opposition alliance is also likely to be unveiled during the two-day meeting.
The inaugural meeting of the alliance was convened by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on June 23. The second meeting of the group was hosted at Bengaluru in Congress-ruled Karnataka on July 17-18.
