Ready to be PM if Congress is largest party in 2019: Rahul
BENGALURU: Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that he is ready to be India’s prime minister if the Congress emerges as the largest party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, acknowledging for the first time that he would be willing to take the country’s top job at a time when several Opposition parties are trying to cobble together a federal front against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
At a town hall with the city’s prominent citizens, when Gandhi was asked if he would become the PM, he replied: “Well it depends... it depends on how well the Congress does. If the Congress is the biggest party, yes.” Gandhi also emphasised he was “pretty convinced” Narendra Modi would not return to power in 2019. “Mr. Modi is not going to be prime minister. I can see it in his face. He knows it,” he said.
During the 10-year rule of the United Progressive Alliance government, Gandhi had repeatedly rejected offers to join the Cabinet. The newly appointed Congress president’s statement, in the middle of the election campaign in Karnataka, is expected to boost the party cadre and escalate a personality clash with prime minister Modi. The state will vote on May 12, and results will be announced on May 15.
Gandhi’s comment sends a message that the Congress sees itself as a front-runner to lead a coalition government to keep the BJP out of power. The comment assumes greater significance after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, seen one of the
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Modi ji is proud he can make speeches well... If speeches could fill the country’s stomach, I wish he gave more speeches SONIA GANDHI, UPA chairperson
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Congress believes in divide and rule... divide on the basis of caste and religion... make brother fight brother NARENDRA MODI, Prime Minister
key architects of a proposed federal front, had said last week that the Congress should be prepared to play a supportive role in an anti-BJP formation, a statement that perhaps hinted at her own prime ministerial aspirations.
Trinamool Congress spokespersons in Delhi and Kolkata declined to comment on Rahul’s statement on Tuesday. But Nawab Malik, spokesperson of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) -- one of the more consistent partners of the Congress and also in the forefront of the federal front negotiations -said that “nobody can oppose Rahul Gandhi if people gave him mandate”.
In Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party (SP) spokesperson and former minister Rajendra Chaudhary said: “It is his statement. What can we say about it. It may happen or might not. Too early to say anything.” The SP, led by Akhilesh Yadav, is taking on the BJP in the state along with once bitter rival, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by Mayawati. Both parties are considered key to a combined anti-BJP front.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), too, declined to comment on Gandhi’s remark. “It is their issue. For us, it is a non-issue,” said TRS Rajya Sabha member K Kesava Rao. TRS leader K Chandrashekhar Rao has also been working on putting together an alternative front to take on the BJP.
Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain quipped that Gandhi has a right to “dream” but even allies of the Congress would not accept his leadership. “Look at the irony, Congress is losing state after state ever since Gandhi took over as party’s vice president and then party chief. But he is dreaming to become the prime minister,” Hussain told reporters.
Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, however, backed Gandhi’s statement, describing him as a “natural choice”.
“Remember, he is not hankering for the post and in fact he had been most self-denying earlier. His dignified response came after he has led from the front as Congress president and is in stark contrast to the prime minister and the ruling party president’s obsessive hunger for pelf, power, post and politics,” Singhvi said.
Speaking about Gandhi’s comment, Sanjay Kumar of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies said: “I think he wants to dispel the notion that he is a reluctant politician, that his heart is not in politics. He is signalling that he is deeply invested in politics and harbours the ambition for the top job.”
Kumar added that Gandhi was also asserting within the party, where there remain ”whispers” that he is not serious. “He is saying I am PM material. Don’t think otherwise,” he said.