Sonia Gandhi, Singh to fight India elections

INDIA: India's ruling Congress will fight the 2014 general elections under the leadership of party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a senior party leader said Saturday.

The issue of whom the embattled Congress will project as premier has become a topic of heated speculation with Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi, the next in line in India's top political dynasty, showing deep reluctance to take the role.

The party will fight the 2014 polls “under the leadership of (party president and Rahul's mother) Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh” and will not project any prime ministerial candidate, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said.

“We will go to the elections under (their) leadership,” the veteran party leader said.

“If we get a majority and form the government, it will be decided then who will be the prime minister,” he added.

His statements came after Gandhi, 42, who hails from a line of three prime ministers and has widely been seen as being groomed for the job, called the issue of whether he would be the prime ministerial candidate “irrelevant” on Thursday. Prime Minister Singh, 80, indicated Friday he might be willing to continue in the job, telling reporters, “I am not ruling it in, I am not ruling it out,” after being initially expected to bow out of politics.

India's Hindu nationalist opposition BJP is expected to field Gujarat chief Narendra Modi, 62, who is hailed as an economic manager but is a divisive figure nationally after being at the state's helm during deadly 2002 religious riots.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, a pro-market reformer who is also often mentioned as a potential prime ministerial candidate, said separately the government is determined to finish its five-year term.

“There will be no early elections. Elections will take place on time in May 2014,” Chidambaram told a news conference as he issued an upbeat economic outlook, predicting faster growth and healthier public sector finances.

Talk of snap polls has been fanned by the exit of the scandal-tainted coalition's two biggest allies in recent months, leaving it in a vulnerable minority position in Parliament.

AFP