news details |
|
|
| Can UP be Rahul Gandhi's stepping stone? | | |
BL KAK
A development of much significance: Rahul Gandhi's critics within the Congress party have been clearly outnumbered by his admirers--'yes-men' will be the appropriate description. Going by impressions, young Congress parliamentarian, Rahul Gandhi, is being projected as the future Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP).
Both Rahul and his party have taken little effort to be discreet with hints about the possibility during campaigning for the ongoing UP Assembly elections.The master plan seems to let political novice, Rahul, get hands-on experience at running a government before being projected as the Prime Minister candidate during the 2009 general elections.
Intriguingly, the Congress party on its own is in no position to emerge victorious in the 403-member UP Legislative Assembly. It could end up fourth behind the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Congress managed only 25 seats in the 2002 State elections.
"We are not predicting numbers, but it is sure that we are going to be in a position where no government can be formed without our support or participation", said senior UP Congress leader, Satyavrat Chaturvedi. Party insiders say that they have fixed a realistic target of winning at least 50 seats so as to be able to command respect in what is widely expected to be a hung House.
The Congress party is expecting to firm up a post-poll alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which may end up being the single largest party if pre-poll surveys were anything to go by.
In such a scenario, the Congress's support for the BSP may be conditional to Rahul Gandhi getting the Chief Minister's post, with BSP supremo Mayawati having an influential cabinet berth.
The Jan Morcha of former Prime Minister, VP Singh, and constituents of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-- the ruling alliance at the centre-- may also back Rahul. While Rahul himself has been promising voters that he intends to keep his promise of making UP India's top-ranking State, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has lent credence to the grapewine by telling voters at an election rally that Rahul was the future of UP.
Interestingly, both Mayawati and Rahul's mother Sonia Gandhi, the Congress party chief, have avoided taking pot-shots at each other during the campaigning
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
