Cong continues to rubbish reports of PM-Sonia divide

The Congress party today continued to deny suggestions of any differences of opinion between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi over the decision to sack ministers, Pawan Bansal and Ashwani Kumar.

“It is only an attempt to malign us. There is no such divide. Both, the prime minister and the Congress president are on the same page,” Congress leaders told Business Standard.

Yesterday, Congress media incharge Janardan Dwivedi told reporters, “As far the relationship between the prime minister and party president Sonia Gandhi is concerned, it is a perfect one. There cannot be a better relationship between any party president and prime minister than the one which exists between the two.”

The need to “clear the air” was felt after Congress leaders themselves had, in their enthusiasm to give credit to Gandhi, attributed the decision to sack the two ministers who were under a cloud, to Sonia Gandhi alone without making any mention of the prime minister. The view further gained ground as the resignation of the two came hours after Gandhi’s meeting with the prime minister. It is significant that the two men were considered to be close to the prime minister and were appointed at his behest.

This is not the first time, that rumours have abounded about the divide between Gandhi and the prime minister. It was initially stoked soon after Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh’s comments that the “twin power centre model” has not worked well.

The Congress party at that time too, publicly rejected Digvijaya’s views although Digvijaya himself said that he stood by his views. Now, Congress leaders admit in private that “the twin power centre has served us well for all these years, especially in the first term of the United Progressive Alliance. But, it now seems to have outlived its utility.”

While Congress leaders are forthright in backing the PM, they all say he is definitely at the helm till 2014. But what after that? There are no answers forthcoming to whether Manmohan Singh will be the Congress prime ministerial candidate post-2014.