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Will Sonia hold sway over Indian premier?

PALLAB BHATTACHARYA, New Delhi
When Manmohan Singh takes oath as the prime minister of the world's largest democracy, it will herald a new stint in his 13-year-old parliamentary career but the real power will remain with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi who declined the top post, analysts said.
To reassure Congressmen disappointed with her decision not to take up the post of prime minister, Sonia issued a statement Wednesday, saying: "I am not going anywhere. I am still very much in politics." "I will continue as the Congress president and chairperson of the Congress in parliament for as long as you want me to…I will always be here, working for the party. The Congress is my life. All of you are my family," she asserted.
In fact, one of the most important reasons why 71-year-old Singh, an Oxford-Cambridge educated economist, banker and bureaucrat, emerged as Sonia's choice as the man for the prime minister's post is his apolitical nature and lack of personal political base-qualities that have helped him survive the slippery turf of power in Congress.
When the nominee of the Congress chief is a political lightweight, it helps the party presidents to retain their full control over the power structure, analysts said.
Singh has not only survived but risen and risen under three Congress presidents of contrasting styles of functioning and personalities since 1991, P V Narasimha Rao, Sitaram Kesri and Sonia Gandhi. What are the reasons for Singh's meteoric rise from a political greenhorn to the most powerful post, especially being the member of a party where people spend their lifetime toiling hard even to get a
toe-hold in the inner circle of power? Besides Singh's impeccable integrity and intellectual prowess as an economist, it is his unflinching loyalty the party boss that analysts said helped him to become the prime minister despite being a political lightweight.
Analysts said Singh has clearly signaled to his party bosses that they have no scope to nurture any fear about their supremacy. Given the power politics in Congress, conventional wisdom suggest that it would have been surprising had Sonia chosen leaders more senior to Singh in the party for the top job.
This is what explains the Congress decision to hurriedly amend the constitution of its parliamentary party yesterday that empowered Sonia to decide who will be the prime minister after she herself went into a renunciation mode, said the analysts.
As per the amended constitution of Congress Parliamentary Party, 58-year-old Italy-born Sonia will hold the posts of party chief and chairperson of Congress parliamentary wing, which is a joint body of MPs of upper and lower houses of parliament, as well as the leader of Congress group in Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament.