2014 Lok Sabha elections: Congress not to declare Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate

Singh also gave indications that the Congress was not averse to doing business with the Left after the next elections and apprehended that the advent of Modi could lead to communal polarisation in the polls.



Asked about BJP's elevation of Modi as its election campaign chief, just a step short of announcing him the prime ministerial candidate, Singh said, "We are not concerned. It is not an issue with us. BJP is free to take any decision. We are in the politics of ideology and not personality...Congress party does not believe in the politics of polarisation.

Asked whether Congress treats Modi as a political challenge and about Union minister Jairam Ramesh's comments that Modi presented managerial and ideological challenge to the party, Singh said, "The very name of Modi and before that of L K Advani give an impression of polarisation.

"It is not Modi. It is the ideology of the Sangh and the BJP which believes in divisive politics. Politics of hatred and violence based on religious lines, which is the challenge," he said.

Singh sidestepped a query on whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could again be Congress' PM candidate. "First the country has to give us a mandate again and then the parliamentary party and the party chief have to take a decision in consultation with elected MPs," he said.