India, Feb. 16 -- New ideas on who should lead or manage the Opposition's INDIA bloc emerged from former top functionaries of the Congress era on Monday. Sanjaya Baru, who served as media adviser to then-PM Manmohan Singh, has pitched for Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of poll-bound West Bengal.

He argued that, "as the only woman to presently head both a political party and a government", Mamata Banerjee stands apart from the current generation of leaders at the national and regional levels.

Calling her a "totally self-made, first-generation leader", Baru argued in an article for The Telegraph that "repeating the Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh model with Rahul Gandhi-Mallikarjun Kharge has not helped".

His piece was shared on X by Ra...