Karnataka Election 2018: Can Rahul Gandhi become the PM in 2019 Mamta Banerjee says, 'Congress can never have a majority of its own'

Earlier this week, the Congress president Rahul Gandhi express his belief to become Prime Minister if it's party emerge as the single largest party in 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. The West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee who is the prime opposition leader to take a lead role to shape an anti-BJP front. When Ms Banerjee was quizzed over the Rahul Gandhi's statement of becoming Prime Minister, the TMC chief Ms Banerjee said Mr Gandhi "is free to give his opinion".

"But the fact is, in the present situation of the country, the Congress can never have a majority of its own," the Trinamool Congress chief told a Bengali news channel, according to news agency Press Trust of India.

Instead, Ms Banerjee said, the federal front that she and other regional parties promote, will be "the future".

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"Various regional parties will emerge victorious in their respective states. Federal Front of regional parties in the future. If regional parties come together and form a platform, it would be good for the country," she said in an interview to Bengali news channel 'Zee 24Ghanta'.

But when Ms Banerjee was questioned if she could lead this front of regional parties? West Bengal CM Ms Banerjee, 63, didn't give a clear answer to it. Everybody will work like a "united family" and whatever is good for the country will be done, she said.

Ms Banerjee also predicted that neither Congress nor the BJP will bag the majority of votes in Karnataka assembly elections. n such a situation, she added, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda's Janata Dal-Secular would play the kingmaker's role. Or even be the king.

"The Congress should have worked more tactfully with HD Deve Gowda, it would have helped them," she said, according to PTI.

The voting for the 224-member assembly has begun in the 222 constituencies in Karnataka at 7:00 am on Saturday. The votes for the 222 constituencies of the 224 seats will be counted on May 15. Over 2,600 candidates are in the fray -- more than 2,400 are men and over 200 are women.

Out of the 224 seats, 36 of them are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs), while 15 of them are for Scheduled Tribes (Sts). The total voters including service electors according to the 2018 final rolls are 5,06,90,538, of whom 2,56,75,579 are male voters, 2,50,09,904 females and 5,055 transgender voters.