The Congress will support any candidate across party lines who can defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the upcoming elections.
Sources in the Congress said that the party's main focus in the 2019 general elections will be to seal victory in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar which jointly constitute 22 per cent share of seats in Lok Sabha. To succeed in its goal, sources said, the party is ready to form alliances.
The Congress is at present in talks with several regional parties for alliance both at regional and national level. Since BJP's allies such as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Shiv Sena are miffed with it, this could be an added advantage to the Congress for a grand alliance.
On a question about Congress' chances of backing either All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee or Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati as the face of Prime Minister in the upcoming general elections, sources said the party believes that a lot will depend on the outcome of the elections in 2019. The Congress is, however, open to all options.
Meanwhile, the Congress shared images on social media from the party president Rahul Gandhi's interaction with women journalists in New Delhi.
"Congress President @RahulGandhi met and interacted with women journalists earlier this evening and what a wonderful interaction it was!" the party posted from the official Twitter handle.
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