Rahul leaves it to MPs to pick PM

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday declared it was ready for the forthcoming general election and trained its guns on the BJP as its main rival.

Adhering to the party tradition of not naming a candidate for Prime Minister before the polls, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, despite the clamour by party workers, made it clear that if the Congress won the polls, the newly-elected party MPs would take the final call on deciding the PM.

Putting put to rest all debate on his being projected as PM candidate,  Gandhi said at the day-long AICC meeting here that the Congress is a democratic party and does things democratically.

“We will fight the elections and we will win also. Our members of Parli-ament will choose their leader according to the Constitution,” he said.

In an apparent bid to avoid reopening the issue, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said, “The CWC had taken a decision on Rahul yesterday. And that is final.” As the clamour among the delegates continued, Mr Gandhi interjected during the speech of AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi to say that he would make known his feelings in his speech in the afternoon.

It was an aggressive Rahul Gandhi that tore into the Opposition and raised the morale of the Congress workers. He dared BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi on his “Congress-free India” campaign, saying those who wanted this would themselves be destroyed.

The AICC meeting was called against the backdrop of the party’s debacle in the recent Assembly elections in four Hindi-belt states and ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Next: Congress harps on the secular chord

Congress harps on the secular chord

New Delhi: After deciding not to project a PM candidate and to fight the electoral battle under Mr Rahul Gandhi, the AICC resolution called upon “like-minded political and social forces to come together for a secular, democratic vision of India.”

Though Mr Gandhi, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not name the BJP and Mr Modi in their speeches, their targets were clear.

The Congress chief had spurned the PM’s post in the 2003 general election in order bring non-BJP parties together in a coalition.

This strategy had worked well in December 2003 and within three months the BJP-led NDA lost the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.

This time Mr Gandhi is adopting the same strategy by refusing to become the Congress’ PM candidate with the calculation that this will lead to Mr Modi’s isolation.

In fact, the party resolution says, “The 2014 Lok Sabha elections will be a contest between opposing ideologies — one that seeks to divide and the other that seeks to unite India. One a polarising ideology that militates against the core values which define Indian nationhood and its constitutional democracy, and the other a liberal secular democratic ideology represented by the Indian National Congress.”

In her opening remarks, Mrs Gandhi said, “We meet today to send a clear signal that the Congress is ready and prepared for the battle ahead. These elections will see a sharpening contest between conflicting ideologies, between competing interpretations of the past and between clashing visions of the future.”

It will be a battle for the preservation of our age-old secular traditions, traditions of diverse communities living harmoniously in one composite national identity, she added.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his speech, appealed to people to judge the record of his government while closely scrutinising that of Opposition governments, especially the records and claims of others, and particularly in the context of inclusiveness, an apparent reference to Mr Modi.

Rejecting the analysis of the Congress’ defeat in four state Assembly elections, he suggested there is a need to analyse where the party lacked in preparations and work out a strategy for the coming general election.

While coining the slogan “Young India, Empowered India”, Union finance minister P. Chidambaram said the Congress should consider fielding at least 272 candidates below 35 years of age in the Lok Sabha polls in order to empower the youth and entrust them with more authority, power and responsibility.

Barring a couple of speakers, there was no direct attack on the regional parties during the day-long AICC session. Apparently taking a leaf out of the Aam Aadmi Party’s strategy, Mr Gandhi said tickets for 15 Lok Sabha seats would be given on the basis of feedback from local units and, if the experiment worked, it would be expanded to the legislatures.

The young Gandhi favoured at least 50 per cent women as party chief ministers.