In an unusual move, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has repeated the unsolicited advice he had earlier tendered to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) leadership — that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the natural choice for the alliance’s prime ministerial candidate after the next elections and it may be premature to launch Rahul Gandhi.
The advice is unusual because he has said so for the second time and also because it is the Congress Legislature Party that will decide its leader and possible prime minister if the party is the single largest entity in the Lok Sabha elections.
“The Congress, as the major party in the UPA, has to take a call on the leadership issue. It should decide and discuss with the allies... But if we want someone who is non-controversial, then Manmohan Singh is there,” Pawar said in an interview.
He made it clear “it is too early to say anything” about the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, the MP from Amethi, who is being projected as a potential prime minister.
Pawar said the UPA should contest unitedly the coming elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi to send the message of unity ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Pawar said he did not visualise elections earlier than March-April next year, quashing speculation that the Congress might hold general elections along with the Assembly elections by the end of the year after a record foodgrain production and possible lowering of inflation.
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The prime minister is said to be of the view that elections to the Lok Sabha should be held early so that the next Budget is presented by the new government.
Pawar, one of India’s most experienced administrator-politicians, said the 15th Lok Sabha could have a truncated term if either the Congress or the BJP failed to win a minimum of 150 seats each. “In the coming elections, it is going to be difficult for any party to get 160-170 seats”.
He said a Third Front government led by Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party and with the Left parties as supporters will not have much of a future.
History has shown that Charan Singhs, Chandra Shekhars, Deve Gowdas and Gujrals cannot give stability at the Centre, but Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh can, he said.
Pawar, who parted ways with the Congress in 1999 on the issue of foreign origin of party chief Sonia Gandhi, said the number of regional parties was bound to rise in the coming days as the national parties, the Congress and the BJP, had failed to pass on the leadership to those who are “natural leaders” in the states.
On the problems confronting Congress, he said, “In the days of Pandit (Jawaharlal) Nehru, there were leaders like BC Roy and Govind Ballabh Pant in the states... In later years, there was hardly any such thing and ... the states started being run through representatives of the central leadership... It is no different in the BJP.”
“There was no bio-data culture before the 1970s. There was no centralisation of power. Nowadays, it is unfortunate that those who have spent 30-40 years in the organisation are forced to give bio-datas to those who have not contributed even 10-20 years,” he said.