‘LS polls may throw up a dark horse for PM’s post’

Next Lok Sabha elections could throw up a dark horse for the top executive post, claim leaders from the UPA and the NDA.

Despite the presence of an unprecedented three Prime Ministerial candidates, the next Lok Sabha elections could throw up a dark horse for the top executive post and the Government could be an unstable affair, claim leaders from the UPA and the NDA.

The 15th Lok Sabha is likely to be a short-lived affair and it is very difficult for any party including the Congress and the BJP to get 160-170 seats, NCP chief Sharad Pawar feels.

Incidentally, Pawar was the first UPA leader who advocated the need to project Manmohan Singh as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the ruling alliance in the next polls, a suggestion which was endorsed by the alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Independence day.

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Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, whose party is part of the BJP-led NDA, agrees that the next Government could be a ‘very unstable’ entity given the mushrooming of regional parties, some of which, he feels, are “district parties”.

He is of the view that a dark horse could be the next Prime Minister.

Raut says that in order to avoid such a scenario, the BJP must get 200-odd seats and its allies a minimum of 100. “We must vigorously be in search of new allies”.

If this does not happen then it would be a tough call to make L K Advani the next Prime Minister, despite the fact that he is a ‘tall national leader who has over half-a-century of contribution to the nation,” says Raut, who is also the spokesman of the Sena, the oldest ideological ally of the BJP.