Gandhi Won’t Be Premier

Hounded by Hindu nationalists, and apparently fearing for her safety, Italian-born Sonia Gandhi shocked her adopted nation Tuesday by announcing she would not become India’s next prime minister.

Former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, a key part of Gandhi’s transition team, became the favorite to become premier. Members of Parliament from Gandhi’s Congress Party were asked to sign a resolution this morning approving Singh as the party’s candidate.

News that Singh could get the top post boosted India’s stock market Tuesday. A day earlier, the benchmark index suffered the biggest drop in its 129-year history after concerns about how a Gandhi-led government would proceed with economic reforms.

Gandhi broke down in tears Tuesday when she told members of the Congress Party in Parliament that she would not accept their nomination to lead the world’s largest democracy.

“I have always asserted that if ever I found myself in the position that I am in today, I would follow my inner conscience,” she said. “Today that voice tells me I should humbly refuse to take that post.”

Senior aides and allies of the Congress Party had tried for two days to persuade Gandhi to accept the job of prime minister after she led the opposition in defeating the Hindu nationalist government of outgoing Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Thursday. On Monday, her party leaders denied persistent rumors that Gandhi was refusing to become prime minister.

When Gandhi announced her decision, several members of Parliament walked toward the podium, shouting that she should not surrender to pressure from Hindu nationalists who threatened to stage demonstrations across India to protest her Italian roots. But Gandhi insisted “there is no blackmail from any party.”

“My request to you all is to understand the strength of my resolve,” she said. “That is why I request you to accept my decision and please understand it very well, that I am not going to change my decision.”

Congress Party members of Parliament tried anyway, rising in one speech after another to plead, cajole -- even threaten mass resignation -- in hope that they could persuade the woman who has led their party since 1998 to lead the nation.

Her supporters in the party saw Gandhi as the rightful heir to a family dynasty that has dominated Indian politics for almost 40 years. But the family’s power has come at a cost. Extremists killed Sonia Gandhi’s husband, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, in 1991, and his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in 1984.

Hundreds of her supporters, many feeling betrayed, maintained a vigil outside her residence late into the night. Among the crowd were the rich, the poor and some eunuchs -- all of whom saw Gandhi as their best hope.

Several supporters held up posters that declared: “Sonia or Suicide.”

The vigil turned bizarre when Gangacharan Rajput, a former Congress Party member of Parliament, put a pistol to his temple and threatened to kill himself. He apparently fired a shot that missed, and police wrestled him to the ground.

Gandhi did not name a successor. Singh, the apparent front-runner, was the architect of India’s economic liberalization program during the last Congress-led government from 1991 to 1996. Pranab Mukherjee, another former finance minister and a key member of Gandhi’s transition team, was mentioned as another possibility.

Gandhi has frequently said that she was not leading her party to become prime minister. Her main goal, she said, was to defeat the Hindu nationalists and see the return of a secular government.

“I was never hungry for power, nor was it my aim to get any post,” she said Tuesday night. “My aim has always been to strengthen the secular foundation of our country, to protect the interests of the poor brothers and sisters of our country.”

Members of Gandhi’s Congress Party, and its leftist allies such as Communist leader Jyoti Basu, said Gandhi’s adult children Rahul and Priyanka persuaded her not to become prime minister because they were afraid she could be assassinated.

“Rahul and Priyanka said, ‘We have lost our father, we don’t want to lose our mother as well,’ ” Basu said.

Last week, Rahul was elected to Parliament in the Gandhi family stronghold of Amethi, in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. Priyanka was her mother’s campaign manager and is considered a strong candidate to lead the Congress Party in the future.

Earlier Tuesday, Gandhi accepted an invitation from President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and visited his residence with Singh to discuss forming a new government.

When they emerged from the meeting after less than half an hour, Gandhi told reporters she would return today to provide more letters of support from parties in her coalition. They would include parties that would not join the government, but would support it in parliamentary votes, Gandhi said.

One of her biggest hurdles in trying to form a stable government was a decision by left-wing parties, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), to remain outside the government while supporting it in Parliament’s lower house, called the Lok Sabha.

Neither Gandhi nor the president explained publicly why her incoming coalition government hadn’t been confirmed or a date set for her swearing-in ceremony -- as Congress Party leaders had promised.

Tuesday morning’s Hindustan Times echoed the public’s confusion with the banner headline: “She will, she won’t, she will,” followed by a separate headline that said: “Rumours scotched, Sonia to be prime minister.”

Pressure was also building from Hindu nationalist supporters of Vajpayee, who attacked Gandhi over her Italian roots.

Gandhi was born a Roman Catholic in the Italian village of Orbassano, about 50 miles from the city of Turin. She became an Indian citizen in 1984, 16 years after marrying Rajiv, whom she met while studying English at Cambridge University.

Her opponents called her a foreigner, questioning why she waited so long to take up Indian citizenship.

Gandhi has lived in India for more than three decades, and chose to remain here after the assassination of her husband. Her two children were born in India.

During the hard-fought election campaign, the general secretary of Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party, Pramod Mahajan, tried to cast doubt on the “100% Indianness” of her children.

All the parties in Vajpayee’s alliance said they would boycott Gandhi’s swearing-in ceremony. After Gandhi pulled out, the alliance announced it would send representatives to her successor’s inauguration.

Times staff writer Shankhadeep Choudhury contributed to this report.