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New Delhi: The Nationalist Congress Party has put its senior ally, the Congress party, in a fix over naming the ruling United Progressive Alliance's prime ministerial candidate for the forthcoming general elections.
The NCP has proposed incumbent prime minister Manmohan Singh's name for the post praising him as an honest, efficient and transparent premier.
While the Congress party was prompt in brushing off the suggestion saying no such vacancy exists right now, it is worried about the real intentions of the NCP.
This was NCP's second attempt at cornering its parent party after suggesting that the UPA should contest the next general elections as one unit. The UPA came into being in May 2004 after the then ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) lost power and the Congress party managed to form the coalition after the elections.
Congress party circles say it is yet another attempt of NCP chief Sharad Pawar to block the elevation of Rahul Gandhi as prime minister.
Origin issue
It may be recalled that the NCP came into being just before the 1999 general elections when Pawar, P.A. Sangma and Tariq Anwar formed the party after they were expelled for publicly demanding that Sonia Gandhi should not be projected as the Congress party's prime ministerial candidate due to her "foreign origin".
Singh was seen as a stop-gap selection since Sonia wanted to groom her son Rahul Gandhi for the country's top post. The original Congress plan was to go to polls without projecting anyone as its prime ministerial candidate, increase its numbers in Lok Sabha and decide the issue depending upon its performance. It is feared that some allies may not like naming Rahul for the post at this stage and confirming Singh for another term may discourage the Congress rank and file waiting the Rahul's elevation as the fourth prime minister from the Nehru-Gandhi family - a post held by Rahul's father Rajiv, grandmother Indira and great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru.
"We have reasons to be sceptical of the NCP. Although they are part of the UPA, they have joined hands with the rival BJP to form government in Meghalaya and joined hands with Shiv Sena in the civic polls in Maharashtra's Pune city," a senior Congress leader said.
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