But will the INDI-Alliance agree? Parties like the Congress, Trinamool Congress, and the Aam Aadmi Party, lack imagination. If they had, they wouldn’t have waited. Congress leaders are woefully short in the cleverness department. Otherwise, some nuts and bolts guy in the Congress war-room would have popped the question and Mayawati would have tied the knot.

And, TMC Chief Mamata Banerjee wouldn’t be playing second fiddle to Sonia Gandhi’s Congress. Ditto AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, who backed Mamata in suggesting Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge's name for INDI-Alliance’s ‘PM face’, a blunder which Kharge himself corrected, knowing best his own limitations, one of which was how many in the Hindi heartland knew who Mallikarjun Kharge was?

Like the land-locked JD-U leader in Patna asked – after Nitish Kumar raised a stink at Kharge’s momentary nomination – “Ye Kharge-Warge Kaun Hai, Es Kharge Ko Koyi Nahi Jaanta?” True. Up north, in Senthil Kumar’s despicable description, “gaumutra states”, Mallikarjun Kharge would be just another unknown hombre walking up and down a dusty Bihar street.

The same will not be spoken of ‘Behan’ Mayawati, who is a Uttar Pradesh Dalit known to all and sundry in the lanes and gullies of the "gaumutra states", and she could be a formidable force against the Gujarati transplant of two terms, Narendra Modi, who believes revamping the Kashi-Vishwanath Corridor gives him the keys to not just Varanasi’s vote-bank, but to votes everywhere in the Hindi heartland, the entire cow-belt of the revered ‘gaumata’, who has been thrown to the vagaries of Mother Nature.

But with Mayawati’s name on the ballot, and the media calling her INDI-Alliance’s “PM face”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting his Waterloo in Varanasi could be a reality. If that is a 2024 joke, think again. Both Dalit and Muslim will gang up and catapult Mayawati to the PMO. So far, till now, there have been several politicians whose names have cropped up for ‘PM candidate’, but nobody’s is so convincing than that of Mayawati.

BSP Member of Parliament Malook Nagar gave voice to Mayawati’s innermost thought: “Name Mayawati PM-candidate of INDIA bloc and BSP will join the INDI-Alliance.” Fact is, Mayawati has more than the required administrative experience, she has a solidified vote-bank, she has the reputation of a tough taskmaster and she is "imperious" in her own manner and style. Mayawati's mentor, Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram, picked her up from the anonymity of studying for the Civil Services to "command a 1000-strong IAS".

Trouble is, the INDIA bloc has more than one “PM candidate”. But adding one more would not make a whit of a difference. Just make sure a knifeman is not sent to the gunfight. That would be rank stupidity. The ‘PM face’ must fit the bill and task. Will Mayawati, or will she? There is competition – Nitish Kumar, Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi…even Arvind Kejriwal. Uddhav Thackeray? Mamata Banerjee, herself, and Sharad Pawar.

That list stands whittled down, though. Kharge savoured the thought for a couple of hours and then walked it back, saying “let’s wait, what’s the all-fired hurry? Chances are the BSP started thinking of “Dalit Mayawati for PM” only after Mamata and Kejriwal recommended “Dalit Kharge for PM”? If Dalit was a key factor, why Kharge, why not Mayawati? It will be a real feat.

Point is, the Opposition requires more than just a joint alliance, it needs a prime ministerial face if only because the BJP has a PM face and has had one, the same, for the past couple of times the Opposition lost. The INDI-Alliance cannot rule out that the losses were't due to the lack of a ‘PM face’. To deny Modi and BJP the hat-trick needs outright victory and what the INDI-Alliance is sorely lacking is a Prime Minister candidate with the pulling power of a high-powered people pulling magnet.

Voters like voting for somebody with a name, on whose chest they can pin the badge on if the government delivers and put the blame on, if the government fails to deliver. Don’t forget jail-time is waiting for quite a few in the queue. Among them AAP politicians, and Congress politicians; even Trinamool netas. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is waiting for the law to take its own course, which does not sound filmy anymore.

Also remember, with Ram Mandir built and the abrogation of Article 370 judged and ascertained, the Modi government is on a Hindutva-i-sation drive. Next could be the uniform civil code, and then like Union Home Minister Amit Shah keeps rattling once in every two days, to the Opposition and key communities, the resuscitation of the abandoned CAA. Perhaps, with a brute majority, also the three farm laws. With all these on the BJP anvil and with Prime Minister Narendra Modi unbeatable, the Opposition needs to go into battle with a livewire "PM face" like Mayawati, who late Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao had said was a “Miracle of Democracy”. (IPA Service)