Mumbai, April 02:Pulling the Cong govt’s chestnuts out of the fire often, Pranab wants to be PM from 2012 to 2014 in return
No more a smiling matter: Faced with bleak assembly-poll prospects in UP and in Andhra Pradesh that are critical to gaining national power, Manmohan Singh is not making it any easier for Sonia Gandhi to enthrone Rahul Gandhi in 2014.
Sonia Gandhi’s leadership of the Congress is facing two major problems, one or both of which may be insurmountable.
Manmohan Singh has proved a non-asset in securing the Congress moral and political high-ground vis-à-vis the BJP/Left opposition. No sooner than the 2G JPC was conceded, Wikileaks turned adverse floodlight on the PM’s corrupt 2008 parliament confidence-vote victory and his shameful pro-Americanism.
Faced with bleak assembly-poll prospects in UP and in Andhra Pradesh that are critical to gaining national power, Manmohan Singh is not making it any easier for Sonia Gandhi to enthrone Rahul Gandhi in 2014. Manmohan Singh’s liabilities are beginning to overshadow his loyalty to the Sonia Gandhi family, and even the BJP suspects the same.
Arun Jaitley insinuated that Manmohan Singh’s “birthright” taunt flung at LK Advani was actually directed at the dynastic succession being planned for Sonia by her son.
The second major problem for the Sonia Gandhi leadership is Rahul Gandhi. So far, it was whispered by Congress party managers that Rahul Gandhi is not prime-minister material. One Congress general secretary calls him “murkh”, which does not decently translate into English. Now, Wikileaks has added credence to those whispers, with quotations from Congressmen that they are awaiting Rahul’s exit and Priyanka Vadra nee Gandhi’s, entry into politics.
So far as this writer can tell, Sonia Gandhi is not ready to withdraw Rahul from the PM race, having planned an entire future for him. But Rahul Gandhi’s much-advertised unsuitability for prime-ministership keeps the crisis from resolution, and keeps growing.
-Agencies