Arjun bats for Rahul as PM, pads up for polls

IT'S HIS PARTY: Congress MP was offered the post of a junior minister in the PM's office.

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New Delhi: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has refused an offer to become a junior minister in the government but his party colleagues believe he is prime ministerial material.

Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh is the latest to say that Rahul should be projected as the Congress’ prime ministerial candidate. "Why not," he said in an interview to the Press Trust of India when asked whether a young leader should be projected for the post.

"He (Rahul) has all the qualities of his father. He is making sincere efforts in acquiring the information and knowledge that is required," Arjun said when asked about Amethi MP. Singh agreed that this is the right time for Rahul to be seen to be in the race for the PM’s post.

"These are individual views—it is for the UPA to decide. I have no view. Whatever is the party view, is my view", he told the news agency. Singh is the second senior Cabinet Minister to support Rahul for the Prime Minister’s post.

Asked by Karan Thapar on Devil’s Advocate if the NCP would support Rahul if UPA wins the general elections, Patel said: “nothing has changed” and his party would support the young leader like it had supported his mother (Congress chief Sonia Gandhi).

The politics behind Arjun’s statement

All this comes at a time when UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi herself told reporters on the sidelines of the Cabinet reshuffle on April 6 that Rahul was offered a minister's job but he refused. Rahul himself later said that he wanted to work for the Congress and if he moved on to the government the Youth Congress of he has taken charge would suffer.

Political analysts believe the Gandhi family seems to have carefully chalked out Rahul's political career. Neither Sonia nor Rahul think that he should be made the Prime Minister just now.

Analysts say Rahul would rather look after party matters and emerge as a mass leader before taking the reins of the government. With Rahul looking to grow within the party, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will do the holding job in any Congress-led government.

Manmohan is the person Sonia trusts most. The Congress chief also believes that Manmohan is the cleanest and most likeable face in the Congress outside the Gandhi family.

Arjun has is own reasons for giving the statement, say political analysts. His relationship with Manmohan hasn’t been good in recent months. The Prime Minister’s Knowledge Commission has a number of objections to the manner in which the HRD Ministry is being run.

Arjun, buoyed the Supreme Court’s approval of the 27 per cent quota for OBCs, wants to remind the party that he has all along been a Gandhi family loyalist and shouldn't have been ignored the way he was in recent months.