Indore / News Agency
When the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) came to power at the Center in 2004, then-Congress president Sonia Gandhi should have accepted the PM's post herself or replaced it with former Union Minister Sharad Pawar instead of former PM Manmohan Singh. Therefore, today's dispersal of Congress would have been avoided. This view was expressed by Ramdas Athavale, President of the Republican Party (A) a member of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Central Minister of State.
He claimed that the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreignness was irrelevant. Kamala Harris of Indian descent could be the Vice President of the United States, why cant Sonia Gandhi, who is a citizen of India; wife of the late former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, a member of the Lok Sabha cant be a PM of India, he asked. Only after the UPA won a majority in the 2004 elections I did demand that she accept the PM's job. In his opinion, the issue of Sonia's foreignness makes no sense, he noted.
If Sonia Gandhi was not ready to accept the PM's job, she should have replaced Sharad Singh with Manmohan Singh. Had that happened, the Congress would have looked more powerful today. Athavale also claimed that the fall of the party which is seen today would have been avoided.
