Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said he can be the Prime Minister in 2019 if the party turns out to be ‘the single largest party’.
Gandhi told the media in poll-bound Karnataka:"Depends on how well the Congress party does, if it is the biggest party, yes, I will be the PM."
As the newly elected president of the Grand Old Party, which led the country’s independence struggle and ruled independent India for most of the past seven decades, Gandhi knows how daunting a task lies ahead, given the ground realities. In almost all the coalition governments the Congress has been a part of, it had been the single largest party, with more parliamentary seats than the sum total of what its alliance partners had. And, barring a few occasions when it supported governments from outside, the prime minister came from the Congress in most of those coalitions.
But the scene has changed drastically since the 2014 Lok Sabha election. The Congress is still the single largest party outside the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which technically puts it at the head of the parliamentary Opposition, but its numbers have come down to only 44 seats in the Lok Sabha. Even in 1977 and 1989—at the peak of an anti-Congress wave each time—the party had managed to secure 154 and 197 seats, respectively.
In September last year, when he was the vice-president, Gandhi said he was "absolutely ready" to be the party's prime ministerial candidate for the 2019 general elections. But that could be difficult given that BSP supremo Mayawati nurses the ambition of becoming the Prime Minister of India. She could become the kingmaker of 2019 aided by the tie-up with Samajwadi Party in UP that sends 80 lawmakers to Lok Sabha. The tie-up had demonstrated its firepower in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha elections that bought victory to Samajwadi Party, bringing Mayawati back to focus.
Congress leaders, however, argue it is still a common belief that no national-level alliance aiming to derail the BJP’s triumphant march can be forged without the Congress. But their diminished strength has hamstrung its bargaining power.
The Congress is not even in the second or third position in five major states that account for 250 Lok Sabha seats—UP (80 seats), Maharashtra (48), Bihar (40), West Bengal (42) Tamil Nadu plus Pondicherry (40). Even within the Opposition, its position is way below the others in these states. It’s the same situation in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with 42 Lok Sabha seats in total.
A win in Karnataka could be a big boost to the Congress in states such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, which go to polls in the coming months and where it is locked in one-on-one fights with the BJP.
An optimistic view within the party is that these states would give it enough seats to be a player in government formation in 2019, thus giving Gandhi more time to prepare for a big win the next time.
The Karnataka Assembly election is just four days away, and all the political parties contesting are on a mission mode to gain as much ground as possible. Gandhi, realising that Karnataka win is the much-wanted booster dose for the party, has sharpened his attack on his opponents.
Gandhi questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his decision to name BS Yeddyurappa as their chief ministerial candidate in Karnataka. “We are repeatedly asking the Prime Minister why has he chosen a corrupt person, who has been in jail, as his party's CM candidate?" he asked.
He further attacked BJP president Amit Shah saying he was a 'murder accused'. "Amit Shah has been accused of murder. Don't think he has lot of credibility. People in India forget that the BJP president is a murder accused. The party that talks about honesty, decency has a person who's been accused of murder as president," Gandhi said.
Earlier on Monday, Gandhi mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said the latter is either on an airplane or speaker mode, but never on work mode.
"There are three modes in a mobile phone, work mode, speaker mode and airplane mode. Modi Ji only uses speaker mode and airplane mode, he never uses work mode," Gandhi said.
