CWC won't name Rahul as PM candidate
18 Jan TNT
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will lead the party's campaign
for Lok Sabha elections, but won't be named the prime ministerial
nominee, a working committee meet decided .
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi told the Congress Working Committee (CWC)
there was no tradition of the party anointing a PM candidate before
elections, party leader Janardan Dwivedi said."The Lok Sabha election
campaign will be led by Rahul Gandhi," Dwivedi said after the meeting.
The move to make Rahul Gandhi the poll campaign chief made it amply
clear that in case the party won the 2014 electoral battle, he would be
its first choice as the next PM. "Just because one other party (BJP) has
declared its PM candidate doesn't mean that we will also project a
nominee for the top post," Dwivedi said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had in September last given Narendra
Modi a crack at the most important job in the country by naming him its
PM candidate, despite bitter opposition by party patriarch LK Advani.The
anointment was seen as the biggest step yet in the career of the Gujarat
chief minister who still finds it difficult to shake off allegations
that he did not act decisively to prevent the 2002 riots that killed
more than a 1,000 people in Gujarat.
"Several leaders raised the issue of naming the PM candidate at the
meet but the party chief said the Congress traditionally did not name a
candidate before elections," Dwivedi told reporters in Delhi."I am a
dedicated worker of the party.
I will perform whatever duty the Congress asks me to," he quoted
Rahul Gandhi as saying during the meeting.
The discussions held by the CWC on Thursday will be approved at the
All India Congress Committee's meet on Friday, the Congress leader said.
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