Manmohan to stay the course

Govt dismisses speculation of Singh quitting
statesman news service
New Delhi, 31 December
Both the Manmohan Singh government and the Congress party today dismissed as baseless reports that the Prime Minister might step down to make way for Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi ahead of the April-May 2014 general elections. 
What seemed to have fuelled such speculation is the fact that the PM is going to hold a rare full-scale press conference here on 3 January ~ which will only be the third such event during the nearly 10 years of his tenure.      
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) rubbished the buzz about Mr Singh’s impending resignation. “The Prime Minister will complete his tenure,” a PMO official said. 
Separately, the Union information and broadcasting minister, Mr Manish Tewari, also trashed the “unnecessary speculation” about Mr Singh’s resignation being possibly on the cards.  “This is absolutely baseless and without facts. I don’t want to lend any decorum to such questions by reacting to them,” he said. 
There has been a clamour within the Congress for a long time to project Rahul as the party’s PM candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.  The party might take a final call in this regard during the 17 January meeting of the All India Congress Committee which will be preceded by a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC). These events have been proposed especially to discuss the Congress’s strategy for the 2014 general elections. 
Mr Singh is widely expected not to be in the running for a third consecutive term. He has himself given clear indications to this effect. He has also strongly supported the Rahul-as-PM proposal.    
“I have always maintained that Rahul Gandhi would be an ideal choice for the PM post after 2014 elections. I will be happy to work in the Congress under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi,” Mr Singh had told reporters on his way back from the G-20 Summit in Russia in September. 
The Congress leadership has maintained that Mr Singh will remain the PM until the 2014 general elections. 
Following the Congress debacle in the recent Assembly elections in four heartland states ~ Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh ~ the Congress president and Rahul’s mother, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, to a reporter’s question, had asserted that the Congress will declare its PM candidate at an “opportune time”.  There were also indications from the Rahul camp that he might not be reluctant about assuming the mantle of the PM candidate and leading the beleaguered party from the front in the upcoming polls.   
Union finance minister P Chidambaram had reportedly said yesterday that the Congress should project its PM candidate for the general elections. 
Today, when Mr Tewari was asked about the possibility of Rahul being projected as the Congress PM candidate, the minister said, “Rahul Gandhi is the natural leader of the Congress,” but also added that “there is no dearth of leaders in the Congress”.  On the timing of the possible announcement of a PM nominee, Mr Tewari referred to Mrs Gandhi’s statement that it would be done at an appropriate time. He said Mrs Gandhi, Rahul and Mr Singh are the “trinity” of the Congress.

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