New Delhi: Finance Minister P Chidambaram has called for the Congress to name the party's prime ministerial candidate for 2014 Lok Sabha elections. While he made it clear that he was not speaking on behalf of the Congress, he added that it would be better if the party took a decision on its prime ministerial candidate.
"I can't speak for the party. You are interviewing me as a minister. Well if you ask my opinion I can give you my opinion, but I can't characterise anything as an error or otherwise. I think today parliamentary elections as well as state elections voters tend to ask who is the leader? Therefore in my view the party should project a person as the leader of the party who will become prime minister if the party forms the government," he told CNBC-TV18.
Chidambaram also refused to subscribe to the view that Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi could not be defeated. "No body is unbeatable. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses," he said.
His statements come even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to address the media on January 3, which will be his first formal press conference in nearly five years. The Prime Minister's Office has dismissed speculation that Manmohan Singh will be stepping down ahead of the Lok Sabha elections scheduled to take place in the next three-four months.
The press conference is likely to set the tone for the Congress election agenda in 2014. Manmohan Singh will defend his tenure as the Prime Minister and lay the roadmap for the Lok Sabha elections which promises to be a very tough battle with a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) going all out to paint his regime as highly corrupt and inefficient.
He is going to essentially talk about his work in last 10 years as he has often been accused by political rivals of not doing enough and of being a very poor team leader.
Manmohan is also likely to officially opt himself out of the prime minister's race after the 2014 elections. He has done that in the past but officially he is likely to do it again on January 3.
There has been a chorus within the Congress party to nominate party Vice President Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate. Rahul Gandhi has been very active in the recent weeks and has spoken on a host of issues which have been contrary to government's stand particularly on an ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers.
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