RAHUL'S DESIRE TO RETAIN POWER

Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday signaled Congress inclination to do business with Left parties, but made it clear that Manmohan Singh’s status as the UPA’s prime ministerial candidate was non-negotiable.

The Congress scion also reached out to potential new allies like the TDP and JD(U), suggesting party calculations that the UPA may not be able to muster the required numbers. Praising TDP and JD(U) leadership, Rahul said Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu were among those who had given priority to development. “I respect Naidu. He has done a good job... maybe he focused on Hyderabad too much but he has done work,” he said.

During the hour-long press conference, a relaxed and confident Gandhi refused to go into numbers except to say that the Congress would do better than it did in the last elections when it won 145 seats on its own. Rahul’s categorical assertion that the UPA leadership including the Left will have little choice but to accept Dr Manmohan Singh’s candidature is certain to ruffle feathers in these parties.

The AICC general secretary said that Left parties nursed old ideas, especially on the nuclear deal. He, however, added that the Congress had common ground with the Left, which was why the party was able to do business with it. “On a lot of concepts we agree with the Left, like education and health.”

He said that there was absolutely no meeting ground with the BJP, citing Gujarat, Karnataka and Orissa.

Maintaining that Dr Manmohan Singh was the best Prime Minister the country could have, Rahul said that he was confident that the Left would support him for the top job once again. “I am pretty confident that the Left will support a Manmohan Singh government. I am confident that the Left would rather have a Congress Prime Minister”, he said, adding that “the field is open to post-poll alliances”. He made it clear that there could not be any compromise on Singh’s candidature, saying that the Congress did not dilute its stand on the nuclear deal.

Ruling out the possibility of the Congress supporting a Third Front government, Rahul said, “we will consider supporting them if the Left gets 180-190 MPs. We will consider them. I hope they are able to achieve that. If they do, I will be first person to say, let us support Left”.

He maintained that the NDA was no longer relevant as many of its constituent parties were distancing...