Poll setback may force Congress to change policy

New Delhi: The ruling Congress party may be forced to name its prime ministerial candidate for the next general election.

The setback in Karnataka has compelled the party to think along these lines. To start with, the party may deviate from its tradition and name its chief ministerial candidates during the upcoming provincial polls to elect legislative assemblies in five states.

"It makes sense to let the voters know who will head the government if they vote for our party," said a party general secretary. While Jammu and Kashmir is scheduled to go to the polls in August, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi are due to elect new assemblies in November this year.

The defeat in Karnataka has for the time being put a halt to all plans of advancing the next general elections due in April-May next year.

Taking stock

Depending on its performance in these states, the party may take stock of the situation - whether to stick to the original schedule or advance the Lok Sabha elections to January-February.

"Yes, we could have thought of holding Lok Sabha elections in November if Karnataka had gone our way," said the Congress leader, adding that the central leadership will discuss thoroughly why things went wrong in Karnataka soon to devise future strategies.

Various leaders within the Congress party and the Untied Progressive Alliance that it heads have been calling for naming the prime ministerial candidate. While the Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar first mooted the idea, it found support from veteran Congress leaders Arjun Singh and Pranab Mukherjee. The latter too had come out openly in support of naming party chief Sonia Gandhi's parliamentarian son Rahul for the post. The party, however, silenced them by asserting that there was no vacancy, hence no need to name the prime ministerial candidate.

Advantage

The thought gaining ground within the Congress party is that the opposition National Democratic Alliance may already have taken advantage by naming Leader of Opposition Lal Krishna Advani as its prime ministerial candidate and exploit it to the hilt while there is no clarity on whether incumbent prime minister Manmohan Singh will retain the post in the event of UPA managing to retain power.