Congress' S Jaipal Reddy says PM candidate can be decided after 2019 polls, calls Mamata Banerjee's stand ‘very fair'

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader S Jaipal Reddy on Sunday described as “very fair” TMC chief Mamata Banerjee’s stand that a decision on the opposition’s prime ministerial candidate should be taken after the outcome of the 2019 polls. [caption id=“attachment_4634611” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Congress leader Jaipal Reddy (left). Twitter @INC_Andhra[/caption] He also asserted that the Congress “will cross the bridge” when it comes to it. Reddy’s remarks came days after sources said a broad consensus has been reached among various Opposition parties to unitedly take on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and a decision on the prime ministerial candidate will be taken after the results. “I think Mamata Banerjee has clarified that such questions will be decided upon after the polls. I think that is a very fair position, I won’t differ from her,” Reddy told PTI when asked if  Opposition parties will be able to come to a consensus on Congress chief Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate. “As for the Congress, our leader is Rahul,” he asserted. Banerjee had said there would be a collective leadership of the opposition front to take on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, indicating that the proposed coalition may not name a prime ministerial candidate ahead of the polls. Reddy also predicted that in terms of strength of the legislative party, the Congress tally was likely to go up by three to four times. Asked if this would make Rahul the top contender for the PM’s post, he said, “All those factors will be taken into consideration after the election." “Why should I keep predicting and anticipating? …the Congress will take a view on that when the time comes, we’ll cross the bridge when we come to it,” Reddy said. Reddy was last week appointed as a spokesperson of the AICC. He had earlier been a spokesperson of the party too. He had been the Union minister for Information and Broadcasting in the IK Gujral cabinet in 1998 and in 1999 he returned to the Congress party after 21 years. In 2004 he was re-elected to 14th Lok Sabha and then he served as a Union minister for information and broadcasting and Union Minister for urban development in United Progressive Alliance-1. In 2009, he was re-elected to the 15th Lok Sabha and served as a Union minister for urban development and Union minister for petroleum and natural gas. He was also the Union minister for the ministry of earth sciences and the Ministry of science and technology from October 2012 to May 2014.