Thiruvananthapuram, December 30: Senior Congress parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor on Sunday stated that party president Rahul Gandhi has all the right qualities to make an ‘excellent’ prime minister. However, he opined that it is for the party leaders and allies in the alliance to take a collective call on the PM candidate for 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Expressing his opinion on the issue, Tharoor said, as PTI reported, “Rahul Gandhi is our leader, which means that if Congress gets a majority, he will be PM. If Congress is in a coalition government, obviously wider discussions will be held with other coalition partners to arrive at a consensus candidate.” Rahul Gandhi Brought Victories Using His Electoral Mettle, Says BJP's Ram Madhav in Rare Praise For Congress Chief.

Adding more, the 62-year-old leader said, “At a personal level, having had several interactions and discussions in close quarters with the Congress president, to my mind it is evidently clear that Rahul ji has all the right qualities to make an excellent prime minister for the country.”

The Congress even stated that Gandhi would be able to "fittingly live up to the expectations of the top job". He said, “And at some level, one could argue that recent statements by non-Congress leaders reflect growing confidence that Rahul is indeed the right man for the job.”

The Thiruvananthapuram MP’s comments came after Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president MK Stalin backed Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition. However, allies have kept their reservations on the issue.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 30, 2018 09:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).