Sonia Gandhi 'does not want to be India's PM'
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Your support makes all the difference.Sonia Gandhi no longer wants to be India's first foreign-born prime minister, members of her Congress party and its political allies said today.
Sonia Gandhi no longer wants to be India's first foreign-born prime minister, members of her Congress party and its political allies said today.
She met with President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam but did not, as widely expected, leave with his approval to form a minority government that would be dependent on the outside support of two communist parties.
Gandhi said she would meet with the head of state again tomorrow.
In the meantime, financial markets that suffered a record crash a day earlier, bounced back on speculation that someone else would lead the country following last week's electoral upset of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee National Democratic Alliance coalition. Some reports named Congress party official Manmohan Singh.
Another senior Congress official, Salman Khurshid, said Gandhi would probably not seek the prime ministership. "Everybody knows ... This is what's happening," he said.
Additionally, key political allies also suggested she would not take the top job.
"I've been informed that Sonia Gandhi is considering the position again," said Somnath Chatterjee, an elected Parliament member from the Communist Party of India-Marxist. "There are rumors that her children are against her becoming prime minister, maybe because of security reasons."
Italian-born Gandhi's husband and mother-in-law were past prime ministers who were both assassinated. Rajiv was killed by a suicide bomber in 1991 and Indira was shot to death by her own bodyguards in 1984.
There was no immediate comment from Gandhi, who was expected to hold a news conference tonight.
Her foreign origins may have been a factor to withdraw.
"A foreigner becoming the prime minister of the country will put national security and the country's self-respect in jeopardy," Uma Bharti, a former sports minister in outgoing Vajpayee's government, was quoted as saying by Press Trust of India news agency.
The Congress party and its allies did not win an outright majority in Parliament in the six-week elections, but communist parties - with 62 seats in the 545-member parliament - said they would support her bid to become prime minister but not join her government.
Investors fear that if she becomes prime minister Gandhi would have to backtrack on her pledge to go forward with economic liberalization, or that the leftists could block key reforms such as the privatization of state-run companies.
That sent markets plummeting on Monday, when the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Sensex, had its biggest drop in its 129-year history.
Congress sources said Gandhi was forwarding the names of Manmohan Singh and Pranab Kumar Mukerjee, both of whom were finance ministers, for the prime minister's post. Singh was the architect of India's economic liberalization program, and many believe he would be able to strike a balance between demands for leftists and policies that benefit businesses.
The benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Sensex, ended up 8.6 percent at 4,877.02 points on the news Tuesday.
Gandhi needs the leftist parties because even with the announced backing Monday of the socialist Samajwadi Party, the Congress would have only 257 seats, short of the 272 it needs for a majority in the lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi came out of the presidential palace and told reporters that she had held "preliminary discussions on formation of the government" with Kalam.
But neither she nor the president's office commented on why Kalam had not named her prime minister.
Subhas C. Kashyap, an expert on parliamentary affairs, said the president may be taking time because he is not yet satisfied that Gandhi can provide a stable government. The Indian constitution says the president should appoint the prime minister, but it doesn't say how.
"It's entirely up to the president to follow his own method, in satisfying himself that the person he appoints enjoys the confidence of the house," he said.
The new Parliament must sit by 6 August, six months from the day that the previous legislature was dissolved.
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