Chintan Shivir: Congress leaders pitch for Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate

mangaloretoday.com/NDTV

Jaipur, Jan 19: Voices pitching for Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate in 2014 could be heard loud and clear on the final day of the Congress’s Chintan Shivir in Jaipur today.

Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha member Sanjay Nirupam unequivocally said that Rahul was the party’s best bet for prime minister and there was hesitancy within the Congress in projecting him as one.

"It has almost been announced that the Congress is going to fight the 2014 elections under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. He is our candidate for the post of prime minister after the 2014 elections," Mr Nirupam said.

 

Rahul is a general secretary in the Congress and in-charge of the party’s campaign committee for the 2014 elections. He neither leads the Congress - mother Sonia Gandhi does - nor is a part of the Manmohan Singh Cabinet, but has a big say in the party as well as the government.

Other Congress veterans at the Chintan Shivir too have rooted for Rahul. While Veerappa Moily said Rahul is "our leader in the present and for the future", Mani Shankar Aiyar said the entire party would back the Gandhi scion should he decide to accept a bigger role.

Yesterday, MPs Raj Babbar, Avtar Singh Badana and others had made the demand for projecting Rahul as the prime ministerial candidate.

This isn’t the first instance of an overwhelming endorsement of Rahul’s candidature for prime ministership. While he has been named the chief strategist for the 2014 polls, his much anticipated larger role in the Congress and the government is yet to be spelt out.

As was evident in Sonia Gandhi’s speech yesterday, the Congress is feeling the poll pinch from alienating middle class and urban voters, who are angry about rising prices, insufferable corruption and lack of security for women.

With the Congress firming up its gameplan to claw back to its vote base, many leaders feel that the Chintan Shivir is the right platform to give Rahul a leg-up ahead of the 2014 elections.

There has also been much talk of the 2014 elections being a straight contest between Rahul and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who, it is learnt, is set to be declared the BJP’s face for the general elections.

But Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh feels the 2014 polls, far from being a Rahul-Modi contest, will be party vs party.