Manmohan Singh to be Congress' PM candidate: Sonia

New Delhi, March 24 (PTI) Making it clear in unmistakable
terms, Congress President Sonia Gandhi Tuesday said Manmohan
Singh is the party's Prime Ministerial candidate and ducked
questions whether her party would do business with the Third
Front in the post-poll scenario.

In significant comments at the Congress manifesto
release, she indicated that Rahul Gandhi could assume
"leadership" when she said "wait and see. There may be a
vacancy".

She was asked whether her son had any chance of leading
the party if not the government in the near future.

On his part, the Indian Prime Minister made a stinging
attack on Bharatiya Janata Party's PM candidate L K Advani for
his oft-repeated criticism that he was a "weak" Prime
Minister.

"Whether I was weak or strong Prime Minister, the actions
of our government will speak volumes.....but when I look at
the record of Advani, all I can discover is the prominent role
in destruction of Babri Masjid. What else he had done
afterwards as a contribution to the national welfare?", he
said.

Asked whether Rahul could become the Prime Minister,
Gandhi, who was flanked by Singh and another senior party
leader Pranab Mukherjee, took out the manifesto and pointed to
Singh's image on its cover and asked "Have you not seen this?"

Earlier in her opening remarks, Gandhi said, "there may
be several claimants for Prime Ministership, but no one can
match Manmohan Singh".

To a question whether she would change her position taken
in the aftermath of the 2004 elections not to accept the Prime
Ministership, Gandhi said, "I had made my position very clear
in 2004 and there is no change in that position even now.
Congress Party's candidate for Prime Ministership is Manmohan
Singh....for full term....for five years. What more can I
say".

The Prime Minister, on his part, made it clear that he
has no intention to contest the Lok Sabha polls by pointing
out that there were several Prime Ministers in the past who
were from the Rajya Sabha and it was as per the Constitution.

He was asked to comment on Advani's suggestion for a
Constitution amendment that the Prime Minister should be from
the Lok Sabha.

"I have just had a bypass surgery. I need time to
recover. Therefore, I don't think I can right now jump into
the election fray," he said in reply to another question.

Gandhi and Singh used the stability card to the hilt to
seek a renewed mandate with the manifesto dubbing the Third
Front as a "recipe for chaos" and BJP as a party of "narrow
communalism".

Both Gandhi and Singh steered clear of questions whether
the Congress could support the Third Front in the formation of
the next government or seek its support if the elections throw
up a hung verdict.

"This is not something I can answer now. Let us go
through the elections," Gandhi said in reply to the question
while the Prime Minister said that he believed that the
Congress would get the numbers on its own.

Singh hailed Sonia Gandhi as the "guardian angel of UPA".
She dismissed suggestions that it was the end of the ruling
alliance ahead of the polls.

"Certainly not", declared Sonia Gandhi, who is also
Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), when
asked whether the developments in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh
marked the end of the ruling alliance.

The Prime Minister termed BJP's defence of Varun Gandhi's
comments with communal overtone as shameful.

To another question about a BJP leader calling Varun's
remarks as reflective of the Congress culture, Gandhi said
that any sane person who knows history knows fully well what
does Advani stand for.

The manifesto attacked the "so called Third Front" as a
grouping of opportunistic parties which have neither
consistency nor clarity.

"They (Front) have neither competence nor commitment.
This front, grounded in the politics of convenience, is
nothing but a platform for personal ambitions. Parties in the
Third Front do one thing when they are in power and quite
another when they are rejected by the people," the manifesto
said.

It attacked the Left parties, the prime movers of the
Front, saying they attempted to exercise authority without
taking any responsibility when they supported the UPA
Government.

"At every step, they violated the discipline, restraint
and sobriety so very essential for running a coalition
smoothly".

The manifesto said the Left parties and their present
partners prided themselves on being secular, but they had
actively aligned with the BJP in the past.

"They are, in fact, responsible for the electoral growth
of the BJP. As past experience has shown, the Third Front is a
recipe for political instability. Lacking a natural anchor,it
is a recipe for chaos, not cohesion."

In the appeal to voters, the party said it embodies the
idea of India like no other party and sought votes on the
strength of its contributions, convictions, concerns and
charter.