"Let Rahul Gandhi become the Prime Minister for once. Two years are left. Let the country also realise the capability he has to run this country and the understanding he possesses of the country's problems," Mr Prasad said.
Taking a dig at the young Congress leader, Mr Prasad further said that in order to become the PM, all that Rahul Gandhi needed to do was to ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to step aside.
Mr Prasad's comments come in the wake of a tough four-cornered contest in UP where the Congress led by Rahul Gandhi has emerged as a serious contender to stake claim to power in the state. The 40-year-old leader has aggressively campaigned in the state, often targeting the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party government over issues of corruption and land acquisition. More recently, the Congress' controversial move to carve out a sub-quota for backward Muslims from the existing 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) is being viewed as a political masterstroke given the electoral significance of the community in the state. Muslims constitute a sizeable section of UP's electorate - 18% to be precise. The minority quota move has been vehemently opposed by the BJP which has dubbed it as divisive and has promised to scrap it if voted to power.
Meanwhile, the Congress, scoffing at the BJP's remarks on Rahul Gandhi, said that it was a sign of surrender by the saffron party which had resigned to the reality of the Congress coming back to power.
"They have admitted the reality. After all, they understand that the Congress will come back to power at the Centre in 2014 and in Uttar Pradesh in 2012. They cannot stop or change it, no matter what they say to the nation," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.
As both parties engage in a verbal duel over Rahul-as-PM, the man himself has consciously shied away from taking up any position in the government. He, instead, has focussed on strengthening the party at the grassroots level as also re-energising the youth wing. More significantly, he has been assiduously working to revive the Congress' fortunes in Uttar Pradesh - a state which, with its 80 MPs in Lok Sabha, clearly holds the key to power at the Centre. Congress leaders though have, on several occasions, voiced their support for Mr Gandhi to assume a larger role in the working of the government and have openly backed him as the party's choice for the prime minister's post.
No comments:
Post a Comment