JD(U) MLA Gopal Mandal on Friday said that the common public does not know Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and it is Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who should become the Prime Minister candidate for the INDIA bloc.

“Public does not who ‘Kharge Pharge’ is. Even I don’t know he was the president of Congress. Nobody knows him. Masses don’t know him. The public knows Nitish Kumar. Nitish Kumar should become Prime Minister. He is popular all over India,” JDU MLA Gopal Mandal said.

Mandal, JD(U) MLA from Gopalpur Assembly said that it was his party president Nitish Kumar who played a key role in stitching the INDIA bloc.

“Everything was done by Nitish Kumar. Nitish Kumar played the role of convenor when the alliance was named INDIA. He gathered all the regional leaders and helped in bringing them together for meetings again and again. They should choose Nitish Kumar as the Prime Minister’s face,” he said.

JDU MLA also targeted Congress and said that it is a party that cannot be trusted by the public.

“Congress party is not worth trusting. It was Congress under which people faced the brunt of inflation and rising prices. BJP came into power only due to their poor policies. Now BJP has taken inflation to another level. So why to pick faces of the past, pick new faces,” Mandal said.

Earlier in the fourth meeting of the INDIA bloc, which took place in the national capital, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s name was proposed as the prime ministerial candidate for the INDIA bloc by Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal in the just-held meeting in the national, where all 28 partners have converged to chalk plans for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Meanwhile, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has played down suggestions about being the prime ministerial candidate of the INDIA bloc for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and said the matter will be decided later and their priority is to try and get a majority.

“First, all of us have to win, we should think about what needs to be done for victory. Who will be PM, this will be decided later. If there are fewer MPs, what is the point of talking about the PM? First, to increase our numbers, (by) coming together, we will try to bring the majority. First, we will have to win,” Kharge told reporters after the INDIA meeting on Tuesday.

Also, Congress leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir rejected media reports that stated that the Bihar Chief Minister was unhappy over Kharge’s name being proposed for PM candidature.

“The meeting went on for five to six hours. The meeting was crucial and effective. It was concluded on a good note. If some media reports are claiming that Nitish Kumarji was unhappy over the meeting, there might be some ‘vested interest’ but I reckon that he is the convener of the alliance and he will make it reach its destination,” he said.

The fourth meeting of the ‘Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc took place in the national capital Tuesday and was attended by leaders from 28 alliance partners.

INDIA or ‘Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance’ is a group of opposition parties, including the Congress. The parties have come together to take on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and prevent it from winning a third straight term at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.