Manmohan is UPA’s choice for top post, repeats Cong
The Congress on Wednesday said that Manmohan Singh is its nominee.
By ET Bureau |
NEW DELHI: With the constituents of the UPA attempting to reopen the issue of prime ministerial candidate, the Congress on Wednesday reiterated that Manmohan Singh is the Congress��� nominee. ���Manmohan Singh is the prime ministerial candidate of the UPA and will lead the battle of the UPA in the elections. When the general leads from the front, and emerges winner then natural consequences will follow,��� Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said.
The reiteration of the party���s choice was necessitated by moves by the Nationalist Congress Party to project Mr Sharad Pawar as prime minister and the support that the Samajwadi Party extended to this endeavour. The possibility of an alternate claimant to the prime minister���s post from among the UPA constituents became imminent on the back of the Shiv Sena���s support to Mr Pawar on account of his being ���Marathi manoos���.
To counter the growing possibility of a pressure group within the UPA, the Congress fielded senior ministers and party functionaries to reiterate that Mr Manmohan Singh was the choice for prime minister. It has also tried to stymie the possibility of an alternate political front, by describing the Third Front as a ���myth���, thereby seeking to undermine the Left���s position of not joining a Congress-led front. To do so the Congress has thrown up the secularism versus communalism faultline, an attempt to rally ���secular��� forces under its leadership.
For its part, the Congress felt that any remaining doubt over the Manmohan Singh���s political future as the prime minister of a UPA government had been put to rest by party president Sonia Gandhi. The party has in the period since Mr Singh���s surgery undertaken an exercise of recasting his political image. Presenting the Congress as the best option the country has to head it in the current situation of economic crisis, and as an extension Mr Singh as the best man to lead the government.
���Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has led the country like a ���marg darshak��� (visionary leader), be it economy, diplomacy and other parameters of governance. Elections will be held in the next two months and the people of the country will endorse it���, Mr Tewari said. However, with the Congress��� decision to contest the lok Sabha elections on its own and opt for alliances in the states with the UPA constituents, the matter was opened up yet again.
The reiteration of the party���s choice was necessitated by moves by the Nationalist Congress Party to project Mr Sharad Pawar as prime minister and the support that the Samajwadi Party extended to this endeavour. The possibility of an alternate claimant to the prime minister���s post from among the UPA constituents became imminent on the back of the Shiv Sena���s support to Mr Pawar on account of his being ���Marathi manoos���.
To counter the growing possibility of a pressure group within the UPA, the Congress fielded senior ministers and party functionaries to reiterate that Mr Manmohan Singh was the choice for prime minister. It has also tried to stymie the possibility of an alternate political front, by describing the Third Front as a ���myth���, thereby seeking to undermine the Left���s position of not joining a Congress-led front. To do so the Congress has thrown up the secularism versus communalism faultline, an attempt to rally ���secular��� forces under its leadership.
For its part, the Congress felt that any remaining doubt over the Manmohan Singh���s political future as the prime minister of a UPA government had been put to rest by party president Sonia Gandhi. The party has in the period since Mr Singh���s surgery undertaken an exercise of recasting his political image. Presenting the Congress as the best option the country has to head it in the current situation of economic crisis, and as an extension Mr Singh as the best man to lead the government.
���Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has led the country like a ���marg darshak��� (visionary leader), be it economy, diplomacy and other parameters of governance. Elections will be held in the next two months and the people of the country will endorse it���, Mr Tewari said. However, with the Congress��� decision to contest the lok Sabha elections on its own and opt for alliances in the states with the UPA constituents, the matter was opened up yet again.
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