Click to play videoNew Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is getting all the credit for the General Elections victory – after all he will be the only PM after Jawaharlal Nehru to return to office after completing five years in office.
Target of personal attacks by the BJP, he was accused of being weak and indecisive, till he hit back in a rather out-of-character comment for his public image.
But Manmohan Singh's most stinging reply to his detractors came by mid-day on Saturday with a decisive win at the polls.
“UPA should be invited to form the government. BJP congratulates both PM and Sonia Gandhi,” said BJP’s Arun Jaitley.
For Manmohan Singh, this decisive win puts him unshakeably in the prime minister's chair and the party credits him as much as Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.
“Dr Manmohan Singh being projected as the PM worked in our favour,” said Congress leader Ambika Soni.
“There is no room for debate on Manmohan Singh as PM. Sonia Gandhi has declared him as the PM candidate from the beginning and our allies also support that,” said Oscar Fernandes.
But while the prime minister is being celebrated by the party, the real clamour is for Rahul Gandhi to join the Cabinet.
He has been credited by the party for having strategised the campaign and pushed through the idea of going without alliances in key states.
His contact programme with backwards and Dalits and reaching out to the youth were also showcased by the party.
This historic win - especially the comeback in Uttar Pradesh - is being shown as proof that it was his plan that has paid off.
There are not so subtle suggestions that this win has made Rahul's claim to the PM's chair stronger.
“Rahul can claim the (PM) chair whenever he wants,” said Prithviraj Chavan of Congress.
The clamour for a role for him in Government is acknowledged by the prime minister himself. “I have wanted him in the cabinet for some time but he has declined,” Manmohan Singh said recently.
Rahul himself has left it to the prime minister to decide. “I don't know if I will be in the cabinet. That is for the PM to decide, I will continue my work,” he said.
There are many who are now openly saying that it’s just a matter of time before Rahul gets the top job – a reluctant politician, now the verge of creating political history.
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