Sunday Times 2
Chidambaram poll shy as party popularity slides
View(s):NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has declined to stand in upcoming national elections, adding to a sense of gloom in the Congress party as a growing list of high-profile cabinet members shies away from facing voters at the ballot box.
After ten years in office, the Congress party is trailing in opinion polls. Thanks to its failure to check corruption, cool inflation and spark an economic revival, it is widely expected to be defeated in the election that begins on April 7.
Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram (Reuters)
Chidambaram, a Harvard-trained former lawyer, 68, is credited with overseeing India’s years of fastest growth.
But he was less successful in his third stint in the finance ministry from 2012, a period of economic malaise that fuelled the slide in his party’s popularity.
“He has seen victory and he has also seen results which have not been in his favour,” said his son, Karti Chidambaram, who confirmed the decision, and will now contest from his father’s constituency in Tamil Nadu.
Asked by NDTV if his father feared defeat, he replied, “That’s not a correct comment about the reasons why he has opted out.” But he did not elaborate.
In the past, Chidambaram has said older leaders should make way for a new generation.
Government heavyweights, including defence minister A.K. Antony and shipping minister G.K. Vasan, have also shown reluctance to fight the elections, while a senior party leader has admitted the party was going through an “adverse phase”.
“Obviously, the situation is not very good for the Congress,” said political analyst Neerja Chaudhary. “It is not surprising that (Chidambaram) doesn’t want to contest what is obviously a losing battle.”
Chidambaram’s decision not to stand does not necessarily spell the end of his political career. Many leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, hold seats in the upper house of parliament, elected by state assembly lawmakers.
Chidambaram has represented his Tamil Nadu constituency for the past decade. But a slender margin of victory in 2009 has made re-election from that seat uncertain, especially as the Congress struggles to find alliance partners in the state.
Investors who once championed the market-friendly reformer Chidambaram as a good candidate for prime minister are now cheering for pro-business opposition leader Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The BJP called Chidambaram’s decision a surrender before the fight.
“This is a symbolic, but important, step, where the finance minister is allowed to run away without answering questions,” said BJP spokeswoman Nirmala Sitharaman.
| Modi to join Indian guru aiming for yoga world record
NEW DELHI (AFP) -An Indian guru said he hopes to set a world record this weekend by practising yoga with millions of other people, including opposition election frontrunner Narendra Modi.  Indian guru Ramdev (L) and Narendra Modi (AFP) Swami Ramdev, who heads a huge yoga empire and is a household name in India, has thrown his support behind Modi, the prime ministerial candidate for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, tipped to win the polls due to kick off next month. Ramdev tweeted that “100 million people will do yoga together on March 23″ and asked people whether they would join in and become “a part of the history.” The guru told a news conference in New Delhi he plans to hold the three-hour yoga session “simultaneously” with people who will gather in the country’s more than 600 districts. Ramdev told reporters that Modi would attend the event. He rejected suggestions that the gathering was a political stunt to boost the politician’s popularity. “The event’s only aim isto spread yoga by bringing together people from different backgrounds, professions and regions,” Ramdev told the news conference. Ramdev combines spiritualism, yoga and social activism and has courted controversy with his purported cures for cancer and other diseases. |