Manmohan Singh to be Congress' PM candidate: Sonia

Making it clear in unmistakable terms, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday, said Manmohan Singh is the party's Prime Ministerial candidate and ducked questions whether her party would do business with the Third Front in the post-poll scenario.

In significant comments at the Congress manifesto release, she indicated that Rahul Gandhi could assume "leadership" when she said "wait and see. There may be a vacancy".

She was asked whether her son had any chance of leading the party if not the government in the near future.

On his part, the prime minister made a stinging attack on BJP's PM candidate LK Advani for his oft-repeated criticism that he was a "weak" prime minister.

"Whether I was weak or strong prime minister, the actions of our government will speak volumes... but when I look at the record of Advani, all I can discover is the prominent role in destruction of Babri Masjid. What else he had done afterwards as a contribution to the national welfare?", he said.

Asked whether Rahul could become the prime minister, Gandhi, who was flanked by Singh and another senior party leader Pranab Mukherjee, took out the manifesto and pointed to Singh's image on its cover and asked "Have you not seen this?"

Earlier in her opening remarks, Gandhi said, "there may be several claimants for Prime Ministership, but no one can match Manmohan Singh".

To a question whether she would change her position taken in the aftermath of the 2004 elections not to accept the prime ministership, Gandhi said, "I had made my position very clear in 2004 and there is no change in that position even now.

Congress Party's candidate for Prime Ministership is Manmohan Singh... for full term... for five years. What more can I say".

The prime minister, on his part, made it clear that he has no intention to contest the Lok Sabha polls by pointing out that there were several prime ministers in the past who were from the Rajya Sabha and it was as per the Constitution.

He was asked to comment on Advani's suggestion for a Constitution amendment that the Prime Minister should be from the Lok Sabha.

"I have just had a bypass surgery. I need time to recover. Therefore, I don't think I can right now jump into the election fray," he said in reply to another question.

Gandhi and Singh used the stability card to the hilt to seek a renewed mandate with the manifesto dubbing the Third Front as a "recipe for chaos" and BJP as a party of "narrow communalism".

Both Gandhi and Singh steered clear of questions whether the Congress could support the Third Front in the formation of the next government or seek its support if the elections throw up a hung verdict.

"This is not something I can answer now. Let us go through the elections," Gandhi said in reply to the question while the prime minister said that he believed that the Congress would get the numbers on its own.

Singh hailed Sonia Gandhi as the "guardian angel of UPA". She dismissed suggestions that it was the end of the ruling alliance ahead of the polls.

"Certainly not", declared Sonia Gandhi, who is also chairperson of the UPA, when asked whether the developments in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh marked the end of the ruling alliance.

The prime minister termed BJP's defence of Varun Gandhi's comments with communal overtone as shameful.

To another question about a BJP leader calling Varun's remarks as reflective of the Congress culture, Gandhi said that any sane person who knows history knows fully well what does Advani stand for.

The manifesto attacked the "so called Third Front" as a grouping of opportunistic parties which have neither consistency nor clarity.

"They (Front) have neither competence nor commitment. This front, grounded in the politics of convenience, is nothing but a platform for personal ambitions. Parties in the Third Front do one thing when they are in power and quite another when they are rejected by the people," the manifesto said.

It attacked the Left parties, the prime movers of the Front, saying they attempted to exercise authority without taking any responsibility when they supported the UPA Government.

"At every step, they violated the discipline, restraint and sobriety so very essential for running a coalition smoothly".

The manifesto said the Left parties and their present partners prided themselves on being secular, but they had actively aligned with the BJP in the past.

"They are, in fact, responsible for the electoral growth of the BJP. As past experience has shown, the Third Front is a recipe for political instability. Lacking a natural anchor,it is a recipe for chaos, not cohesion."

In the appeal to voters, the party said it embodies the idea of India like no other party and sought votes on the strength of its contributions, convictions, concerns and charter.