Thaindian News

Lucknow, Jan 29 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party Sunday dared Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi to become India’s prime minister, saying it would reveal his “capability” to run the country.

“Let Rahul take the prime minister’s seat. The whole country will see what he is capable of doing and how much capability he has to run the country,” BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a press conference here.

“There is not much that he is required to do for riding on to the PM’s office. All that Rahul needs to do is to ask Manmohan Singh to step down and then go and occupy the chair,” he said.

“After all, the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) still has two years to go, so let him show what mettle he has,” he added.

Prasad was reacting to his Congress counterpart Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s remark that Rahul’s leadership in the Uttar Pradesh elections has come like a storm to take the Congress party on the road to victory.

Out to run down the Gandhi scion, the BJP spokesman said: “I would like to cite an example of what Rahul’s much-hyped campaign did at the state assembly elections in Bihar.”

“The Congress lost its deposit in 17 of the 22 places that he led the party’s campaign (in), while its overall tally came down from nine to 5.”

Reacting sharply to Prasad’s remarks, Singhvi who was also in town said: “The BJP leader’s statement reflects how clearly his party has realised the ground reality that the Congress is all set to ride on to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2012 and will be back in power at the centre too in 2014.”