PREMIER PROSPECTS

                                               

So long Pt Nehru was at the helm of affairs in the Congress, it was a foregone conclusion that after the election, he was sure to don the mantle of power. For that matter even Mrs Indira Gandhi’s return to power was an open secret and hence never on the occasions of elections there was any hue and cry for declaring the prospective premier’s name in advance. Even the first non-congress prime minister of the Janata Party in 1977 was decided by JP after consulting the successful party MPs. The man chosen was Morarjibahi Desai. Similarly other such incumbents like Ch. Charan singh, VP Singh, PV Narsimharao,  Devegauda and IK  Gujral were all post-election selections.

The fashion of nominating PM prospect was by and large initiated by the BJP with AB Vajpayee in 1999. They again repeated the exercise in 2004 with LK Advani who failed to make it. But since then, there has been a fashion among political parties to challenge the opponents to declare their prime ministerial candidates.  The boldness of the AAP in this regard has been exemplary. Much before the Delhi assembly election, Kejriwal declared that he would oppose Smt Sheila Dikshit from the New Delhi constituency. He stuck to his gun and succeeded in dethroning her. This declaration compelled the BJP to project Dr Harshvardhan as its CM andidate.

The most talked about decision of the BJP is declaring Narendra Modi as its PM candidate about six months before the election. In the backdrop of his developmental track record in Gujarat, his honest image and persuasive oratory, the other political parties were taken aback as their campaign of tainting him as a tormentor of minorities had fallen flat. The unprecedented turn out in his public meetings in different parts of the country has further unnerved them. Now the Congress is under pressure to declare its own PM prospect. It is believed that Rahul Gandhi will step in on Jan17,2014. Meanwhile, Kumar Vishwas of the AAP has declared to take on Rahul from wherever the latter fought. Vishwas’s public meeting at Amethi on jan 12, in which he proved to be a crowd puller, has caused headache in the Congress think-tank. The development is bound to be interesting.