After the Congress-led UPA won the Lok Sabha elections in 2004, Sonia Gandhi had declined to become the Prime Minister of India, and chose Dr Manmohan Singh for the position, making him the ‘accidental Prime Minister’. Now after Singh’s death, it has been revealed that Sonia Gandhi’s letter declining the position was drafted by journalist Vir Sanghvi. Moreover, it has been claimed that Dr Singh lost the Lok Sabha polls 1999 due to sabotage by some Congress leaders.
This was revealed by journalist Pankaj Vohra in an article published on the Daily Guardian on Saturday, 28 December. In the article titled ‘Manmohan Singh, the designated survivor of Congress politics’, Vohra said that Vir Sanghvi was not in India at that time, and he had mailed the draft of the letter to 10 Janpath.
Pankaj Vohra, who was in Hindustan Times at that time, narrated the incident as one of the untold stories concerning Dr Manmohan Singh, saying that the letter released by Sonia Gandhi declining the position and nominating Singh for the post of PM was drafted by Vir Sanghvi, who was Editorial Director of Hindustan Times at that time.
Pankaj Vohra wrote, “The letter was drafted by my former Editor Vir Sanghvi who was on a vacation to either Thailand or Singapore and was contacted by me after receiving a call from Ten Janpath. First Madhavan and later Ambika Soni called me to trace Vir and get the draft, which finally arrived and was sent to a specific email at 10 Janpath from Vir’s office.”
Vohra claimed that Sonia Gandhi also wanted to Manmohan Singh to become the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party, but she took the post on the insistence of Makhan Lal Fotedar, after which she announced that Manmohan Singh will be the PM.
The article also said that after the Atal Behari Vajpayee govt in 1999 after losing the confidence vote by just 1 vote, Sonia Gandhi had recommended Manmohan Singh’s name for the PM while claiming to form an alliance government. However, the alliance attempt was unsuccessful and fresh elections were held. In the polls, Dr Singh was given the ticket from South Delhi, and it was believed that he would win easily. But as per Vohra, certain Congress leaders ensured that he was defeated, in order to prevent him from entering the Lok Sabha.
He wrote, “While covering the polls, I had predicted that Manmohan Singh would lose, though no one believed me including my colleagues in the Hindustan Times, since I could see the sabotage of his election by Congressmen themselves. Sonia Gandhi who was aware of what was happening was unforgiving and was determined to deal with the saboteurs.”
