Our Prime Ministerial Candidate Is President Rahul Gandhi: Jaipal Reddy

The pitch for Rahul Gandhi as the next prime minister grew louder on Saturday with former union minister S Jaipal Reddy asserting his party president would be the Congress' prime ministerial candidate for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Reddy, however, made it clear the Congress does not want to make the leadership issue a pre-condition for formation of the UPA before the polls.

"Our prime ministerial candidate is our president Rahul Gandhi. Naturally other parties will take their time to accept this. There is no hurry. We are not making the leadership issue a pre-condition for formation of UPA before the polls," Reddy told a press conference.

Recalling the post-poll situation in 2004 when Sonia Gandhi was projected as the prime ministerial candidate of the Congress party, Reddy said then Sonia herself had said the prime ministerial candidate of the UPA will be decided after the election.

So whether alliance partners agree on the Congress party's candidate will be discussed after the polls, he said.

Asked whether Rahul Gandhi will suggest someone else's name from the Congress for the prime Minister's post as Sonia suggested Manmohan Singh in 2004, if UPA is voted to power next year, Reddy said Sonia was dictated by her circumstances which was not the case with Rahul.

"Rahul is our supreme leader. He is our prime ministerial candidate. But that doesn't mean we won't talk to parties who are opposed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi if they don't agree with our candidate," the senior Congress leader said.

His statement comes days after the Congress played down the opposition by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Left parties to DMK's "Rahul Gandhi for Prime Minister" call.

The Congress had said they (other potential UPA partners) had only described the timing as inappropriate and accused the media of twisting the whole issue.

Senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily recently said the West Bengal chief minister and the Left had only described the timing as not appropriate in naming Rahul Gandhi as the opposition's prime ministerial candidate.

On December 16, Stalin had vowed to make Rahul Gandhi the country's next prime minister and lauded him for having the ability to defeat the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.

Asked about the scope of the UPA forming the next government at the Centre, Reddy said it was going to be easier than 2004 and indicated that the Congress was working on post-poll tie-ups with parties like the Samajwadi Party and BSP in UP and RJD in Bihar to defeat Modi-led BJP in the polls.

Referring to the Congress' victory in the recent elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Reddy said the prospects of NDA have also dimmed in other north Indian states including UP, Bihar, Haryana and Punjab.

In south India also the prospects of the BJP are not bright, he claimed.

"So the possibility of UPA forming the next government is very imminent, prospects are bright. I think Modi is bound to pay for all his lapses," he said.

Reddy said the Congress would like to do election adjustments with parties like SP and BSP in UP and RJD in Bihar as these parties were bigger forces than the Congress in these states.

Hitting out at the Modi government over the Rafale fighter jet deal, the Congress leader said full scope for inquiry into the scam was available only through the instrumentality of the JPC.

He said the Rafale issue is still alive and "the biggest defence scam India has faced" would be an election issue.

(PTI)