PM just had a surgery at the start of the year and have not fully recovered any election will be a big toll on his health
Quoting from the same link.
But then PM has gone ahead and started the poll campaign in Kerala and Maharashra"I just had a bypass heart surgery and recovery will take some time," he told mediapesons in reply to a question if he felt confident to contest the Lok Sabha elections in the context of his being projected as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the Party.
"I don't think I am in a position right now to jump in the election fray," Dr Singh recalled numerous instances when the Rajya Sabha members had continued as Prime Minister.
"Indira Gandhi started her Prime Ministerial career from the Rajya Sabha and so was Mr H D Deve Gowda and Mr I K Gujral. The Constitution is clear on the issue. So long as it remains unaltered, Mr Advani should not make such remarks," the PM said.
PM was also scheduled to do an election rally in Assam which was cancelled finally due to bad weather.
How here is the thing – the same PM who is not fit enough to contest for his own election is fit enough to travel around the country and take part in election rallies.
Surely he could have opted for a seat in Delhi which could have allowed him to be in Delhi and contest an election as well.
Deve Gowda and Mr I K Gujral did not stay long enough on their posts but I think Indira Gandhi contasted and won elections soon after becoming PM. I think even PVNR was not a member of the house when he become PM but he soon fought the elections to become one.
I am pretty sure there was ‘a logic’ when Indira Gandhi opted to resign from Rajya Sabha and decided to fight elections. But we do not have the same logic applied here.
Rajya Sabha by definition is representatives of states who are not directly elected by Indian public and a Govt can survive even if does not have a majority in Rajya Sabha.
But the same Govt can not survive if it does not have a simple majority in Lok Sabha as that was thought as the representative of ‘common public’.
So going by that logic probably it was appropriate for PM to be a member of Lok Sabha.
Our PM had good chance to fight an election this time. This could also have dis-allowed the opposition to beat him with such ‘trivial things’.
But then still he is not contesting: Could it be fear of not winning his own seat? Cong could have found a safe heaven for him. He could have contested from Amethi which is always known as a very safe seat for Cong even when Satish Sharma was contesting.
But then still he is not contesting:
Now here is my speculation “could it be as we all suspect that this time MMS will not be around for all the five years and could ‘relinquish’ his post for a much younger leader”.
As he has openly stated that ‘the’ young leader has all the qualities to be the PM
Also again from my twisted mind a PM MMS as a member of lok sabha ‘relinquishing’ his post would be harder to explain that a PM MMS as a member of Rajya Sabha.
Also his term in Rajya Sabha would come for renewal in next couple of years which could be a good time to hand over the baton.
As that would fit well with other un-stated views that it would take 2-3 years to have an effective organization in key states of UP & Bihar and then the ‘young leader’s’ work would be visible on ground. Listen to the clamor of voices saying how he would be a good PM and is already ready to be the PM and then back tracking them. I would think this is a well thought plan to keep MMS well within the limits.
Third one: With so many fragmentations into this election and with so many PM candidates there could be an assessment that this might turn out to be a repeat of 1996 elections. So its ideal keep MMS in the loop but from Rajya Sabha only while prepare the ground for the ‘chosen one’. Remember the delays we had in Cong naming its PM candidate. Could it be due to the fact that they were still carrying out some of these assessments and reached to a conclusion that this time its too crowded to pitch for ‘younger lot’ so they decided to continue the status quo. Certainly few of this time’s PM candidates would not be pitching again in next elections whenever that happens.
Edited to add: Just listening to a debate on TV where one of the debaters says that PM decided to be combetive and start responding to comments made against him after he was declared as a PM candidate. What beats me is that why it took so long to declare something which should have been there from the first day itself as he is a sitting PM and his party says that he has performed so well, so why was this delay in stating what i thought was the 'obvious'.
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Your assessment is absolutely right. He has to remain PM only on the strength of the "favour" of the Gandhis. Winning an election will make him a real leader too. That will make it difficult to ease him out. In fact had Rahul Gandhi been seen as making even a tiny postie difference to the fortunes of the Congress, he would have been openly projected as the PM candidate of the Congress. Now, he has to be placed there through the backdoor.
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