5 May : Rahul Gandhi has given clear signals of working with the Left parties in the post-pollscenario, expressing confidence that the Communists would accept Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister and a Congress-led government.Keeping post-poll options for alliances open, Rahul Gandhi expressed confidence that the Left parties would back Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister and appeared to reach out to key BJP allies such as JD-U and TDP.
An upbeat Congress General Secretary said that the NDA existed only in the mind of the BJP and not on the ground and confidently asserted that the saffron party will sit in the opposition.
At an hour-long press conference ahead of the fourth phase of polling on Thursday, Gandhi said the Congress would do better than in the last elections when it got 145 seats on its own.
"After elections, all options are open. …..We have always been open to post-poll alliances", he said at the media interaction at New Delhi, the third in the series, in which he had some good words for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu.
"I respect Naidu. He has done a good job….may be he focused on Hyderabad . I am not saying (only we have leaders) There are leaders who are in the opposition. Nitish for example ….I think the intention (to work) is there," he said replying to a question whether non-Congress governments are not doing well in the matter of development.
Earlier in the press conference, Gandhi said that Nitish Kumar’s JD-U and Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK, who were or are part of the NDA, were now facing the question (of options) because the NDA is "finished" throughout the country and was existing only in namesake.
"Nitish Kumar, Jayalalithaa and many like minded parties are feeling that the NDA is not winning. After elections all options are open".Gandhi was sure that the Congress would form a government. "But in a democracy, if it so happens, we have no choice," he said in reply to a question whether the party was ready to sit in the opposition.
Asked about post-poll tie-up with the Left parties, he said there were ideological differences but there were also a lot of common points.
"….on a lot of concepts we agree with the Left like education and health. There is a lot of meeting ground with the Left. There is absolutely no meeting ground with BJP for what they did in Gujarat and Karnataka and burnt Christians in Orissa. There is a lot of common ground to do with the Left. There is a reasonable amount of common space," he replied.
"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 "the field is open to post-poll alliances".
Asked whether the Congress would compromise on its Prime Ministerial candidate if the Left was not ready for Manmohan Singh, Gandhi said "Singh is the best Prime Ministerial candidate for the country. The Congress does not compromise on its thinking which it showed on the nuclear deal."
Asked if Congress would support the Left parties, which had supported the UPA for over four years, in forming the government, Gandhi appeared to be sarcastic when he said "we will consider that 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".
Similarly, when asked if the party would back Sharad Pawar as Prime Minister, Gandhi said,"If the NCP becomes the biggest party in India then that option is open."
Rahul bonds with farmers in agri-heartland
Scoffing at BJP’s ‘India shining’ campaign, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the saffron party’s slogan was inspired by high-rise buildings but one can determine whether India is shinning or not only after visiting villages.
"They gave the slogan after looking at towering buildings whereas one can say whether India is shinning or not only after visiting the rural side," Rahul said at an election rally in the predominantly agriculture belt at Barnala, about 60 km from Sangrur parliamentary seat headquarters.
He said he took British Foreign Secretary David Miliband for a tour to the countryside to enable him to have a glimpse into the lives of Indian farmers."I took him (Miliband) to the rural side of the country and showed him the villages and told him without their (farmers’) progress Indian cannot shine," he said.
"No country can progress without the prosperity of farmers and dalits," the AICC general secretary, who was here to campaign for party’s youth candidate from Sangrur Lok Sabha seat Vijay Inder Singla, said.
He said the Congress-led UPA government waived off loans of farmers to the tune of Rs 70,000 crore and "also hiked the prices of wheat and paddy so that farmers can benefit".