Manmohan walks a tightrope

And now, much has been written about the quot;preconditionsquot; he was supposed to have imposed for contesting from South Delhi 8212; that Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, perceived to be behind the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, should not be given Congress tickets.

Singh has denied it, saying that he is not interested in playing the religious card. But the message has gone to the Sikhs that he is sympathetic to their cause. The Delhi Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee SGPCis sharply divided over support to him with the Tohra faction openly coming out in his favour. The Sikhs, whofavoured the Bharatiya Janata Party last time, are expected to vote for him.

Singh has maintained contact with his community and with Punjab over the years. The loan waiver to Punjab during Narasimha Rao8217;s prime ministership was considered his brainchild. He was also the first to say that the Congress must apologise for Operation Bluestar.

Eyebrows were raised earlier this week when he made a strong case in the Congress Working Committee for the candidature of T S Teer from Madhya Pradesh on the ground that Sikhs should be given greater representation. Teer, a Sikh Minister in Digvijay Singh8217;s cabinet, was denied a Legislative Assembly ticket in the 1998 Assembly elections. When some CWC members alluded to corruption charges against him, Digvijay Singh vouched that this was not the case, and his nomination was cleared.

This is the first time Manmohan Singh will contest an election for the Lok Sabha, and for that reason he is a little apprehensive, though his candidature has made the BJP nervous.

WhenP V Narasimha Rao made him Finance Minister, he brought brought him to the Upper House. Since then, Manmohan Singh has been in the Rajya Sabha. Though he has come a long way from the days when he was Chief Economic Advisor or Finance Secretary or Reserve Bank of India Governor, he will have to pick up the tricks of the electoral trade, not having contested a Lok Sabha poll before. There are too many prime ministerial aspirants in the Congress who would want to see him defeated and he will have to guard against their machinations.

His candidature is being viewed by some as a deflective ploy used by Sonia Gandhi, under attack for her foreign antecedents. Manmohan Singh can emerge as a prime ministerial candidate only in a certain scenario. And that is if the Congress comes back with the same number of seats or is in a marginally improved situation, the Left parties get 50-odd seats and are willing to support a Congress Government but Sharad Pawar, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Laloo Yadav and Jayalalitha between themcorner around 70-80 seats and insist that they will back the Congress if it is led by someone other than Sonia Gandhi. Manmohan Singh can be a consensus choice and would be acceptable even to the Left parties, despite his espousal of the new economic policies.

Left to herself, there is little reason why Sonia Gandhi would project him as a potential prime minister, and encourage a rival power centre in the party. He was offered the Lok Sabha seat because he was the Congress8217; best bet for South Delhi, which has been a difficult proposition for the party in several elections recently.