Rahul Gandhi not to be named Cong's PM candidate

To lead party's campaign for Lok Sabha elections

The Congress on Thursday decided party vice-president Rahul Gandhi would not be named its prime ministerial candidate in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. A Congress Working Committee (CWC) resolution said Gandhi would lead the party’s campaign for the polls.

Earlier in the day, Union minister Jairam Ramesh proposed that Gandhi be named the Congress’ prime ministerial candidate. A majority of CWC members backed the idea but Congress President Sonia Gandhi decisively rejected the demand, saying the Congress had never named a nominee for the top job before polls.

With Thursday’s decision, the party also put to rest the speculation that this year’s elections might be a contest between Rahul Gandhi and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

The two-and-a-half-hour meeting was being closely watched to see if CWC will decide to name Rahul Gandhi as the party’s nominee. The demand echoed the voice of the Congress rank and file; but the rationale of the party president’s decision was that “if another party (read BJP) has named a prime ministerial candidate, there is no need for us to do the same”.

After this, Chhattisgarh leader Ajit Jogi and West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee President Pradeep Bhattacharya proposed the CWC resolution alternatively say the elections would be conducted under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. Jogi said appointing Gandhi the party’s poll campaign chief would “automatically” be considered naming him the prime ministerial candidate. Union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad supported this proposal.

After the meeting, party general-secretary Janardan Dwivedi’s address to the media was also along the same lines. He said: “Let others who have competitive issues (BJP) declare their prime ministerial candidates. We have no such problems; Rahul Gandhi is our future leader.”

He reminded reporters the Congress president had said after the recent Assembly poll debacle the party would name its candidate for the top job at an appropriate time. The Congress tradition has been to decide on who will become prime minister, should it win an election, after poll results are out.

The hype over the issue was dissipating for the past few days as two views were learnt to have emerged within the party. One, the party did not want the electoral campaign to be labelled a Narendra Modi verus Rahul Gandhi fight. Two, the party was clear it wanted to project the Congress ideology was under attack and it was resolutely fighting back as one unit, challenging BJP’s one-man (Modi) campaign.

Rahul Gandhi said at the meeting: “I am a dedicated worker of the party and will carry out whatever responsibility is given by the organisation.”

The All-India Congress Committee meeting on Friday, which will be attended by 3,000 delegates, will discuss the economic, political and organisation-related resolutions for the party in the run-up to the general elections.