Andalib Akhter / NEW DELHI
CPI(M) General Secretary M A Baby on Sunday said that Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi would have the right to stake a claim to the Prime Minister’s post if the Opposition succeeds in securing a majority in the next Lok Sabha elections. However, Baby stressed that the question of who should lead an Opposition government must be decided only after the election results.
Baby’s remarks signal that the CPI(M) is not ruling out Rahul Gandhi as a potential prime ministerial candidate, while maintaining that the Opposition should avoid settling its leadership question before it has won the mandate.
“Normally, the Leader of Opposition generally has a right,” Baby said at a press conference, adding that the decision on who should become Prime Minister should be taken after the elections. He argued that once the Opposition secures a majority, its constituent parties would be capable of arriving at a consensus on the leadership issue.
The CPI(M) leader made it clear that his party did not want to participate in speculation over possible post-election arrangements. “We don’t want to engage in the exercise of evolving some hypothesis,” he said, underlining that the immediate priority should be defeating the BJP and winning enough seats to form an alternative government.
Baby also referred to the CPI(M)’s own experience to explain the party’s approach. He recalled that after the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, when the United Front emerged as the largest grouping, the CPI(M) Central Committee had discussed whether then West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu should become Prime Minister.
The party eventually decided against staking a claim because of its limited numerical strength. Baby said that, in such a situation, the Leader of Opposition would naturally have a stronger basis to stake a claim if the Opposition were to emerge victorious.
His comments come amid continuing discussions within Opposition ranks over leadership, particularly the role of Rahul Gandhi in any possible post-BJP political arrangement. As Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi has emerged as one of the principal faces of the Opposition in Parliament, and Baby’s remarks indicate that the CPI(M) sees his claim to the top post as legitimate if the electoral numbers favour the Opposition.
At the same time, Baby stopped short of endorsing Rahul Gandhi as the Opposition’s pre-poll prime ministerial candidate. The CPI(M), he indicated, would prefer to keep the question open until the electorate delivers its verdict.
The CPI(M) leader also acknowledged that other names are being discussed in different political circles. Referring to Tamil Nadu, he said the name of actor-turned-politician Joseph Vijay has also been mentioned as a possible future Prime Minister in the event of a BJP defeat. Baby, however, declined to enter into that debate.
The broader message from the CPI(M) leadership was that Opposition unity should be centred first on securing an electoral majority rather than prematurely deciding who will occupy the Prime Minister’s office.
For Rahul Gandhi, Baby’s remarks nevertheless carry political significance. Coming from a senior leader of a major Opposition party, the statement provides a degree of recognition to Gandhi’s potential claim to lead a post-election Opposition government, while also reflecting the Left party’s insistence that such a decision must ultimately be based on electoral strength and consensus.