Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam president M.K. Stalin on Tuesday put his weight behind Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in the race to the prime ministerial candidature of the opposition alliance. However, all members in the bloc don't seem on the same page, with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav saying the DMK chief's remark was not necessarily the alliance's opinion.
"West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, NCP leader Sharad Pawar and others had tried to bring all the leaders together to form an alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. If someone (Stalin) is giving his opinion on the PM candidate, it is not necessary that all alliance partners have the same opinion," said Akhilesh.
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The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister's comment assumes significance in the backdrop of his absence at the swearing-in of the chief ministers in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where the Congress party came to power after the recently held assembly elections.
The SP, along with the Bahujan Samaj Party, had also skipped a meeting of opposition parties in Delhi recently.
Earlier, on December 16, while talking to reporters after unveiling a statue of his father and legendary Tamil leader M. Karunanidhi in Chennai, Stalin had "proposed" Rahul's name for the opposition's prime ministerial candidate.
Stalin reiterated his stand on Tuesday saying the Congress chief had the strength to defeat the Narendra Modi government. He also appealed to the opposition parties to rally behind Rahul.
