Former Union finance Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said the Congress and its alliance partners will decide after the elections on who will be the Prime Minister and later went on to add that “the Government headed by Rahul Gandhi will implement all our assurance in the next five years.”
Chidambaram comments came at the release of the Tamil version of the Congress party’s Lok Sabha election manifesto in Thirupparankundram, Madurai.
“The Congress party has never announced a PM candidate. We have been following a method of announcing the Prime Minister only after the elections. If our alliance wins more seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Congress and its alliance leaders will decide our Prime Minister after the elections,” said Chidambaram, the architect of the Congress manifesto.
Chidambaram described his party chief Rahul Gandhi as “the representative of this new generation”.
“The passing of the old, the ascendance of the new is the unchanging order of time. Rahul is the representative of this new generation. We should welcome new ideas and thoughts. This new ideas and thoughts will show a new light to the nation,” the Congress leader said.
He claimed the allies will get sufficient berths in the ministry if the Congress forms a government.
{{/usCountry}}He claimed the allies will get sufficient berths in the ministry if the Congress forms a government.
{{/usCountry}}“If the Congress party forms the government, chances are high for the alliance parties to get berths in the cabinet. We will discuss this after the election.”
He also claimed that it is possible to implement all the poll promises of Congress.
“India has accepted our poll promises. Our manifesto has been spreading everywhere like a fire. No one needs to doubt whether our poll promises could be implemented or not. The Government headed by Rahul Gandhi will implement all our assurance in the next five years,” he said.
Chidambaram also took a swipe at Tamil Nadu’s ruling party AIADMK saying it was moving away from the path set by Jayalalithaa.
“Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has been asking about our PM candidate. It indicates that the AIADMK leader is against late AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa’s stance. During the 2014 elections, Jayalaithaa had not named anyone as the PM candidate. However, the EPS is naming Modi for PM,” Chidambaram said.
Responding to question about DMK’s election manifesto assuring the release of convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case he said, “Court has to decide on that subject.”
Both the DMK and AIADMK poll manifestos have promised the release of Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan, Nalini, Robert Payas, Jayakumar and Ravichandran - the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.