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This is an archive article published on September 4, 2011
WikiLeaks: DMK wanted Sonia as PM
Ahead of the general elections in 2009,the DMK wanted to project Congress president Sonia Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate instead of Manmohan Singh.
Ahead of the general elections in 2009,the DMK wanted to project Congress president Sonia Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate instead of Manmohan Singh,according to a cable sent by then US Consul General Dennis T Hopper in June 2008.
The cable quotes Karunanidhis confidante and a party strategist without any official position,retired businessman Siva Prakasam,as saying that Sonia was preferred as Singh would bear the brunt of the public anger against spiralling price rise.
In Prakasams assessment,Sonia Gandhi would be the most appealing in Tamil Nadu,Rahul is not ready,and Pranab Mukherjee might be okay in North India but he would not help much in the South. Manmohan Singh,he added according to the cable,would be a bad candidate,as he is essentially a bureaucrat and he will bear the brunt of popular anger at price rise.
Suggesting that late Congress leader late Arjun Singhs curious meeting with Karunanidhi was to seek the latters support for his candidacy,Prakasam said the DMK leader would not interfere in the Congresss internal political affairs.
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