Seeing the many obvious liabilities of Rahul as a candidate, and perhaps not wishing to repeat their UP debacle, the Congress is in no hurry to declare Rahul as their pick for PM:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/PM-post-no-big-deal-for-Rahul-Congress/articleshow/22641949.cms
It seems likely that the party high command is desperately shopping around for another figurehead like Manmohan, who can get them election votes and then have his strings pulled from behind afterwards - basically, a continuation of the current arrangement. There's currently nobody like that within the Congress Party, especially given that Manmohan has already declared his "eagerness" to serve under Rahul's prime ministership. Congress may have to settle for an alliance with Nitish, in exchange for giving "special status" to Bihar.
Even if they don't declare anyone as PM candidate, it should be easy enough for BJP to campaign against Congress while targeting Rahul as their de facto "leader"/"yuvaraj"/mascot. In the absence of a clearly defined candidate, the Congress will have left themselves open to attack.
4 comments:
If Congress wins majority of the seats, it's PM candidate is going to be Rahul baba only - how can someone else have that privilege when power is within reach? It will be very adventurous on part of Congress (i.e. Sonia) to announce the PM candidate before the election results are out. It will be difficult this time around for Sonia to pull a cat out of the bag like last time she pulled Man Mohan. Rajeev has been mentioning Amarya Sen as a likely candidate - would love to know why he thinks so.
Congress winning majority of seats is highly unlikely. As it is, India's about to be rocked by the imminent announcement of QE tapering by the US Fed. Speculators have already smelled blood in the water with the govt's recent round of panic response to the rupee plunge. Another round of plunge and panic will see a sovereign credit rating downgrade for UPA.
I don't think Congress can really afford to go with Nitish Kumar, because he might just as easily ditch them down the road, to form a 3rd Front. Likewise, they covet his seats in Bihar for themselves.
Amartya Sen has no mass appeal or campaign potential. It's not enough to be a darling of the international left-wing cocktail party circuit abroad. Besides, even at his old age, he's probably too feisty to be a pliable lapdog like Manmohan was.
Congress certainly lucked out with Manmohan before, and they'll be rueing his departure. Now it's time for them to face the music - which will probably end with yuvaraj dancing like a monkey to an organ grinder.
they have not declared him for clearly strategic reasons.
If they rig and bribe and win they can claim that pappu was their 'natural choice'
If they lose, they can make someone else the fall guy. or girl.
Sure, that's obvious - but their refusal needs to be made a campaign issue. Rahul can be shown to be the coward that he is. He can still be attacked as if he were their candidate. Indians have to be asked whether they want another Baby Doc.
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