Congress Has Not Declared Rahul Gandhi Its PM Candidate: P Chidambaram

P Chidambaram said the prime ministerial post is not an "issue" for the Congress (File)

The Congress has not officially declared its president Rahul Gandhi its prime ministerial candidate, party leader P Chidambaram said today, adding the focus is on ousting the BJP from power. He also said the decision on who would lead the government would be taken by alliance partners after the polls.

"Congress has not officially declared Rahul Gandhi as its Prime Ministerial candidate. On the contrary, when two or three persons (in the party) spoke about it, the AICC denied it and told people not to speak about it," he told News18 Tamil in an interview.

The former union minister said the prime ministerial post is not an "issue" for the Congress currently.

"Rahul Gandhi has not said this. The Congress has not said it wants to bring a person as prime minister. We will decide on the issue (of PM) once the alliance wins and the alliance partners will sit and decide on it," he said.

He said the Congress wants to see an alternative government which is "progressive".

Mr Gandhi said recently that talks over leadership of the government will take place after the alliance of opposition parties wins the elections.

"Conversations (with the opposition parties) on leadership are going to happen after the elections, after we have pushed the BJP and the RSS back."

In May, Rahul Gandhi had said that he could become the prime minister of the country if his party performed well in the 2019 elections.

"I am pretty convinced that Mr Modi is not going to be prime minister. I can see it in his face. He knows it," he said in reply to a question at an event in Bengaluru.

"Will you become prime minister?" the questioner asked.

"Well it depends... it depends on how well the Congress party does. If the Congress party is the biggest party, yes," he responded.

With inputs from IANS