Zee Media Bureau/Himanshu Kapoor
New Delhi: After Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde expressed his support for NCP chief Sharad Pawar saying that he would be happy to see him as the prime minister, on Saturday backtracked from his remark.
Shinde while speaking to media, said that if a Maharashtrian becomes the prime minister then he will feel good. "I told them (reporters) that Pawar is from Maharashtra and a friend. If a PM is from Maharashtra then I will feel good," Shinde said.
However, Shinde later clarified that Congress` main aim is make the party vice president Rahul Gandhi as the next prime minister. Shinde earlier in the day had praised the Maharashtra strongman and said that Pawar is in the PM race since 1992.
Pawar, who was with Congress but broke away on the issue of Sonia Gandhi`s foreign origin issue, last week had made it clear that he will not be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls which are due in the second quarter of this year, but instead will stand for the Rajya Sabha.
With Manmohan Singh virtually announcing his retirement and stating that he`s not in the PM race, Congress is preparing itself for the crucial January 17 AICC meet where party Rahul Gandhi is likely to be named the prime ministerial candidate.
Before the Aam Aadmi Party decided to plunge into national politics, the next Lok Sabha polls will be a Rahul Gandhi vs Narendra Modi affair, and Congress president Sonia Gandhi had said that the party will wait for the opportune time to declare its prime ministerial candidate.
Now with AAP ready to fight the LS polls and the emergence of Narendra Modi, Congress faces an uphill task in the upcoming 2014 General Elections.
