NEW DELHI, India – Sonia Gandhi has withdrawn her name for consideration as India’s next prime minister.
“I must humbly decline this post,” she told a meeting of Congress party lawmakers, who reacted angrily to her decision.
“I appeal to you to understand the force of my convictions,” Gandhi said, fighting to make herself heard above indignant shouts from her supporters in the central hall of Parliament.
“I request you to accept my decision and to recognize that I will not reverse it. … It is my inner voice, my conscience.”
Gandhi did not say who she wanted to see lead the new government.
But party sources said Gandhi has endorsed party official and former finance minister Manmohan Singh for the post.
Singh had been expected to serve again as finance minister. He was the architect of India’s economic liberalization program during the last Congress-led government in the 1990s. (Singh profile)
Gandhi, an Italian-born Roman Catholic, met Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Tuesday. But she left the presidential palace saying another day of talks was needed before her party could form a new government.
The president’s office did not comment on why Kalam had not named her prime minister, as had been widely expected.
Local media reported Gandhi as saying she refused to accept the title of prime minister because of personal attacks over her faith and Italian origin.
“There are rumors that her children are against her becoming prime minister, maybe because of security reasons,” AP quoted Somnath Chatterjee, an elected Parliament member from the Communist Party of India-Marxist, as saying.
Gandhi, 57, would have become the nation’s first foreign-born prime minister, a move which has sparked scattered protests across the country, most notably from the outgoing ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Some BJP members have said they would never let a foreign-born person become prime minister in the Hindu-majority country.
Analysts said earlier that any tough line could be part of a bargaining ploy to shore up support before claiming power.
Meanwhile, supporters gathered outside Gandhi’s home and tried to convince her to keep vying for the top spot.
One man stood on the roof of a car, held a home-made gun to his head and waved a stick to deter people trying to calm him.
“Call Sonia Gandhi! Tell her I will kill myself if she doesn’t become prime minister!” Reuters reported him as saying before he was disarmed.
Investors were initially unnerved that a multi-party coalition could slow or halt reforms in the world’s largest democracy, and Indian stock markets suffered their worst-ever meltdown on Monday.
Despite fears of more losses following “black Monday,” reports that Gandhi might not accept the leadership post prompted India’s stock market to soar Tuesday.
India’s biggest stock market – the Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai – closed 8.25 percent higher at 4,877 points. (Indian stocks stage comeback)
Brokers estimated that India’s capital markets have bled some 2 trillion rupees ($45 billion) since Thursday, when Gandhi’s party won a shock win over the country’s ruling Hindu nationalists.
Singh is widely viewed as an economic reformer in the Congress party.
Analysts are worried any new government would only be able to rule with support from pro-labor, anti-privatization Communists, which may block or slow key reforms in Asia’s third-largest economy, especially the privatization of bloated state firms.
“They (the Communists) said we have nothing to do with privatization, that the privatization/disinvestment ministry should be shut down,” said John Elliott from Fortune magazine.
“All very dramatic stuff that was bound to worry the markets.”
Analysts expect the markets will continue to be nervous in the immediate future.
With investor confidence dented, traders are looking for policy announcements from the new government to get economic reforms on the fast track again.
While the leftist parties, with more than 60 of the new parliament’s seats, have decided not to formally join Gandhi’s coalition, they have pledged to support her from outside.
They will likely vote with Congress on most issues, including confidence motions, and help draft a joint economic blueprint.
It is common in India for parties to support a government from outside a formal coalition.
In becoming prime minister, Gandhi would also follow in the footsteps of her husband Rajiv, assassinated in 1991, and her mother-in-law Indira, slain in 1984. (Gandhi: Fairy tale and tragedy)
CNN’s Ram Ramgopal, New Delhi Bureau Chief Satinder Bindra and producer Suhasini Haidar contributed to this report
Now make way for MM Singh. One of my heroes. :k: