The Congress President says no question of anyone replacing Manmohan in UPA-2.
The Congress president Sonia Gandhi has left the question of the party’s prime ministerial nominee for 2014 open.
Even as she forcefully asserted that there is no question of anyone replacing prime minister Manmohan Singh in the UPA-2, she left this issue open.
“We are still in 2012,” she quipped, when asked about the party’s choice for the prime minister in 2014.
Read between the lines, the Congress president’s cryptic comment should set at rest speculation about Rahul Gandhi becoming the prime minister in UPA-2, but also make it clear that Tuesday’s disastrous showing in the assembly elections does not have any impact on his 2014 billing.
The Congress first family appears to have changed gears after the mid-term rout in the state assembly elections. It is willing to take the flak openly and talk about its ‘mistakes’. Walking out from the confines of the highly restricted 10 Janpath, first, the young scion Rahul Gandhi did it on Tuesday, and then prima donna Sonia Gandhi herself displayed the humility to accept the janta’s verdict.
“The results have not been that favourable for us,” she said in a surprise appearance before the media.
The Gandhi’s have usually kept away from any media questioning, even the Congress spokespersons have been rather brusque in handling questions related to the first family. But there was a surprising willingness to respond to media questions on Wednesday.
She does not betray any signs of debilitating illness, and there is no let up in the combative tone. She conceded that there was some mistake in the candidate selection, and this led to the presence of a large number of rebels in the field. But she clarified that lack of leadership was not an issue; on the contrary there are “lot of leaders”.
The Congress president was unwilling to yield any ground on the question of corruption. “Who has passed the Lokpal bill in the Lok Sabha? Who blocked the Lokpal bill in Rajya Sabha,” she countered.
The Congress president conceded the need for some corrective action to be taken at the states in view of the poor showing in Uttar Pradesh.
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