Manmohan Singh slams Digvijay Singh on power divide with Sonia Gandhi

Calling his continuation for a third term as a hypothetical question,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that the issue of two power centres was a useless debate.

Adding a new twist to the debate over the Congress’s prime ministerial candidate in the event of the party securing a fresh mandate in 2014,the ruling party had said on Tuesday that the equation between Prime Minister Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi is ‘an ideal model’ in any democracy ‘for future also’.

”The relationship which exists between Sonia Gandhi as Congress president and Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister is unique and something which has never been seen before. I think,in any democracy,this is perhaps the ideal model for future also,” Congress general secretary and media department chairman Janardan Dwivedi had said.

His remarks came in the backdrop of Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh’s recent remarks disapproving of ”two power centres”

Digvijay had said the model of having ‘two power centres’ has not worked well and suggested that Rahul Gandhi should not opt to nominate a Prime Minister if the party gets a majority in the next Lok Sabha polls.

When asked whether he would accept the third term as Prime Minister,Manmohan Singh said,”it is a hypothetical question… We are yet to complete this term.”

The current term of the government will end in May next year.

Asked whether he was ruling himself out,he said,”I am not ruling it in,I am not ruling it out.”

Queried whether he would welcome Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister,Manmohan Singh replied,”oh yes,anyday.”

Gandhi,who was appointed as Vice President of Congress in January,has been reluctant to join the government.

Even yesterday he dubbed as “irrelevant” the questions over whether he would become the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister,who was interacting with the mediapersons at Rashtrapati Bhavan after presentation of Padma Awards,was also asked to comment on Rahul Gandhi’s speech at the CII yesterday to which he remarked,”excellent”. (With PTI inputs)