He said the result of the 2024 general elections could be surprising as there is an opposition coalition and there are chances of the INDIA bloc coming to power at the Centre by trouncing the BJP-led NDA government next year, PTI reported. 

Speaking to professionals of a US-based and Silicon Valley-incubated D2C marketplace Way.com after inaugurating its office at Technopark here, Tharoor said, “So we’ll have to wait and see. I think that once the result comes out, then because it’s a coalition and not one party, the leaders of those parties will have to get together and pick someone.”

“But my guess is that from the Congress Party, it’s going to be either Mr. Kharge, who then will be the first Dalit prime minister of India, or Rahul Gandhi since in very many ways it (Congress) is a family-run party.” 

The former union minister added that the Prime Minister is the first among equals, and he was confident in his ability to perform whatever responsibilities may be assigned to him, as per PTI reports. 

Recently, the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar has played a major card by publishing the Bihar Caste Census on Gandhi Jayanti, also months ahead of the crucial assembly polls to be held in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh. Not to forget the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections!

Nitish Kumar’s decision to publish the survey may have been the checkmate of the Opposition INDIA bloc towards NDA ahead of the 2024 polls.

The caste-based survey was ordered last year after the Narendra Modi government at the Centre made it clear that it would not be able to undertake a headcount of castes other than SCs and STs as part of the census.

Notably, the caste-based census was favored by both BJP and Congress when they were in opposition but rejected or never published when either came to power.

(With PTI inputs)

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Updated: 17 Oct 2023, 07:17 AM IST