The Congress youth brigade and veterans like Arjun Singh may have been rooting for Rahul Gandhi as the next Prime Minister, but the UPA allies are not willing to accept the party's heir-apparent as their leader।
Latest to support the projection of Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister for a second term is Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar, who had walked out of the Congress in 1999 after refusing to accept 'foreign born' Sonia Gandhi as the party's Prime Ministerial candidate।
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh has already gone on record expressing his preference for Manmohan Singh's continuation as the Prime Minister if the UPA returned to power after the general elections।
"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 told PTI in an interview.
He made it clear that "it's too early to say anything" about the leadership of Rahul Gandhi। The MP from Amethi is generally being projected by the Congress as a potential leader and a future Prime Minister.
On the problems confronting the Congress, he says, "In the days of Pandit Nehru, there were leaders like BC Roy and Govind Ballabh Pant in States... In later years, there was hardly any such thing and then representatives of the central leadership began to run the States। It is no different in the BJP."
Highly critical of the way the Congress was ignoring experienced and dedicated leaders, Pawar said, "There was no bio-data culture (in the Congress) before the seventies। 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-data to those who have not contributed 10 to 20 years for the party."
Pawar feels that the Lok Sabha elections will be held at the scheduled time -- March-April next year -- and political uncertainty will loom over the country if either the Congress or the BJP failed to get minimum of 150 seats। Predicting that the 15th Lok Sabha could turn out to be a short affair, he said, "it is difficult for any party to get 160-170 seats".
Ruling out the prospect of Mayawati emerging as the next Prime Minsiter with the support of Left and UNPA, he said, "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।"
Pawar feels that the regional parties are bound to rise in the coming days as the national parties, both Congress and BJP, have failed to give stewardship in States to those who are "natural leaders"।
On the Amarnath issue, the NCP chief was critical of the BJP and said the main opposition was just doing vote bank politics and is unconcerned about the consequences.
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