Rahul woos Left,confident of their support for Manmohan

At an hour-long press conference ahead of the fourth phase of polling on Thursday,Gandhi said the Congress would do better than in the last elections when it got 145 seats on its own.

“After elections,all options are open. …We have always been open to post-poll alliances”,he said at the media interaction,the third in the series,in which he had some good words for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu.

“I respect Naidu. He has done a good job….may be he focused on Hyderabad . I am not saying (only we have leaders) There are leaders who are in the opposition. Nitish for example ….I think the intention (to work) is there,” he said replying to a question whether non-Congress governments are not doing well in the matter of development.

Earlier in the press conference,Gandhi said that Nitish Kumar’s JD-U and Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK,who were or are part of the NDA,were now facing the question (of options) because the NDA is “finished” throughout the country and was existing only in namesake.

“Nitish Kumar,Jayalalithaa and many like minded parties are feeling that the NDA is not winning. After elections all options are open”.

Gandhi was sure that the Congress would form a government. “But in a democracy,if it so happens,we have no choice,” he said in reply to a question whether the party was ready to sit in the opposition.

Asked about post-poll tie-up with the Left parties,he said there were ideological differences but there were also a lot of common points.

“….on a lot of concepts we agree with the Left like education and health. There is a lot of meeting ground with the Left. There is absolutely no meeting ground with BJP for what they did in Gujarat and Karnataka and burnt Christians in Orissa. There is a lot of common ground to do with the Left. There is a reasonable amount of common space,” he replied.

“I am pretty confident that the Left will support a Manmohan Singh government. I am confident that the Left would rather have a Congress Prime Minister”,he said adding “the field is open to post-poll alliances”.

Asked whether the Congress would compromise on its Prime Ministerial candidate if the Left was not ready for Manmohan Singh,Gandhi said “Singh is the best Prime Ministerial candidate for the country. The Congress does not compromise on its thinking which it showed on the nuclear deal.”

Saying his views on the Left was his personal,he said he did say that the Left had old ideas — 20 to 30 years old view on nuclear deal — and integration with global economy but he was confident that the Left would be forced to accept that the world has changed.

Asked if Congress would support the Left parties,which had supported the UPA for over four years,in forming the government,Gandhi appeared to be sarcastic when he said “we will consider that if the Left gets 180-190 MPs. We will consider them. I hope they are able to achieve that. If they do,I will be first person to say let us support Left”.

Similarly,when asked if the party would back Sharad Pawar as Prime Minister,Gandhi said,”If the NCP becomes the biggest party in India then that option is open.”

He dismissed as “figment of media’s imagination” suggestions that the allies of Congress are not favouring Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister.