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No surrogacy vis-a-vis prime ministerial candidate: Congress
New Delhi, Oct 23: In a rebuff to Sharad Pawar-led NCP, Congress has dismissed suggestions of anyone other than Sonia Gandhi being projected as the party`s prime ministerial candidate in the next elections saying a `surrogate does not serve the purpose`.
New Delhi, Oct 23: In a rebuff to Sharad Pawar-led NCP, Congress has dismissed suggestions of anyone other than Sonia Gandhi being projected as the party's prime ministerial candidate in the next elections saying a "surrogate does not serve the purpose".
Describing Gandhi as an "outstanding leader" of Congress, its chief spokesman S Jaipal Reddy also said the party would emerge as the single largest and "we never depended upon the NCP as an ally in the next Lok Sabha polls, but I am not ruling that either".
"A person who commands popular confidence, who has command over the party should lead the government. A surrogate does not serve the purpose," he said in a television interview.
Reddy stated this when told that Congress prospects might improve considerably if the party were to announce that Gandhi would not be its candidate for prime ministership. Questioned about the Congress' "faltering relationship" with NCP and that it had failed to attract any allies since the Shimla conclave in July, he said the Congress hoped to win more than 200 seats in the polls.
"We have a strategy in all the states where we are weak. We have a redoubtable reliable ally in Laloo Yadav. We need to fix up our alliance in UP.... We have an option with Mulayam Singh Yadav.... We have our strategy in all the states where we are weak," he said.
Besides, Reddy said, the Left parties "out of their unselfish ideological commitment, made an announcement that they would consider an alliance or an alignment with Congress in the post-poll situation". On the economic front, Reddy said Congress was prepared to disinvest profitable public sector undertakings "provided their long term prospects are not bright".
Commenting on the coming assembly elections, he said in the four Congress-ruled states the party would prove that there is no anti-incumbency factor operating against it.
On Gandhi's performance as leader of Opposition and party president, he said she has proved to be "enormously successful" in keeping the party together. She is "too correct a parliamentarian to speak in impromptu interventions.... Her interventions were well considered and.... They hit and also hurt".
Disagreeing with the view that Gandhi had no answer to the country's problems, he said she has been consistent in articulating an "alternative liberal vision" that Congress offers to the country. Bureau Report
"A person who commands popular confidence, who has command over the party should lead the government. A surrogate does not serve the purpose," he said in a television interview.
Reddy stated this when told that Congress prospects might improve considerably if the party were to announce that Gandhi would not be its candidate for prime ministership. Questioned about the Congress' "faltering relationship" with NCP and that it had failed to attract any allies since the Shimla conclave in July, he said the Congress hoped to win more than 200 seats in the polls.
"We have a strategy in all the states where we are weak. We have a redoubtable reliable ally in Laloo Yadav. We need to fix up our alliance in UP.... We have an option with Mulayam Singh Yadav.... We have our strategy in all the states where we are weak," he said.
Besides, Reddy said, the Left parties "out of their unselfish ideological commitment, made an announcement that they would consider an alliance or an alignment with Congress in the post-poll situation". On the economic front, Reddy said Congress was prepared to disinvest profitable public sector undertakings "provided their long term prospects are not bright".
Commenting on the coming assembly elections, he said in the four Congress-ruled states the party would prove that there is no anti-incumbency factor operating against it.
On Gandhi's performance as leader of Opposition and party president, he said she has proved to be "enormously successful" in keeping the party together. She is "too correct a parliamentarian to speak in impromptu interventions.... Her interventions were well considered and.... They hit and also hurt".
Disagreeing with the view that Gandhi had no answer to the country's problems, he said she has been consistent in articulating an "alternative liberal vision" that Congress offers to the country. Bureau Report