Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal pitched Mallikarjun Kharge as the Prime Ministerial face of the I.N.D.I.A bloc at a meeting of the here on Tuesday but the Congress president made it clear that it was important to “win first and then decide [such issues] later”

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata’s proposal for making Kharge the Convenor or even Prime Ministerial face of the bloc and her Delhi counterpart Kejriwal’s backing surprised leaders at the meeting, with some suspecting the timing as well as the motive, which they felt was to under-cut Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as well as trigger “turbulence” in the grouping.

The meeting also saw the bloc bringing seat sharing “as early as possible” on top of its agenda, with Trinamool Congress insisting December 31 as the deadline for the conclusion of the exercise. Some others argued for January 15 at the very latest, as parties need to start preparations before the announcement of Lok Sabha elections, possibly in March.

The Samajwadi Party also made it clear that if the Congress or any other party wants to bring the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) into I.N.D.I.A, they would not be part of the grouping— SP leader Ramgopal Yadav insisted that they could not do business with the Mayawati-led party.