Now for Manmohanpolitics

Manmohan may be sworn in as PM on Sat; Sonia to be CPP chairperson; DMK to join Govt.

Manmohan Singh was appointed prime minister today after Congress President Sonia Gandhi rejected appeals to take up the top post, and instead got the party to back the respected economist, declaring that the country "is safe in his hands".

On a day when Congress workers screamed, shouted and went into mass hysteria at the prospect of someone other than Gandhi as prime minister, Gandhi held firm and accompanied Singh to Rashtrapati Bhavan with the recommendation that President APJ Abdul Kalam appoint the 71-year-old Sikh to succeed Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Singh was elected unanimously by the Congress Parliamentary Party earlier in the evening. The prime minister-designate did not indicate when he would take oath of office but indications are that the swearing-in will be on Saturday.

Singh took charge of the most important job in the country with humility, accepting that the mandate was for Gandhi.

"We all persuaded her to accept the verdict of the people but she declined for reasons spelt out in her statement," he told reporters in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

In a poignant statement Gandhi told party MPs that she had been overwhelmed by the outpouring of emotion, love and affection from nearly every corner of the country.

"To all of you who are upset or disappointed, I have this to say: I am not going anywhere. I am still very much in politics. I will continue as Congress president and chairperson, Congress Party in Parliament, for as long as you want me to. I am one of you. And nothing will ever change that." But she urged party workers to understand the reasons for her drawing back from the most important job in the country.

Her son Rahul scoffed at reports that security was what prompted Gandhi to give up claims to the Prime Minister's post.

"Security for us is like the cloth we wear," he said. Party sources said the day Gandhi was elected chief of the Congress Parliamentary Party, there was absolutely no indication that she would give it up. "Something happened in these two or three days," they said.

Singh "" and Sonia Gandhi "" are being backed by political parties opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party and will have a solid majority of close to 325 in the 539-member Lok Sabha.

Apart from alliance partners such as Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (20), Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (16), Nationalist Congress Party (9), the Singh-led government will draw on the strength of the Left Front (61) and Samajwadi Party (36) in addition to the Congress' own 145.

The Samajwadi Party and the Left parties have said they will not join the government while the DMK reversed its earlier decision and said it would be part of the government.

A beaming Gandhi, who till yesterday was going to be the one to drive to Rashtrapati Bhavan to take the post and created a political sensation by declining to accept it, said she was relaxed because the "final decision" had been taken.  She was under tremendous pressure "but now everything is over and it is a happy moment".