Lalu bats for Rahul as PM nominee

Koklata: RJD leader Lalu Prasad today batted for Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi to be the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections, and said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s “dream of becoming PM will never come true”.
“Modi’s prime ministerial dream is not going to come true... His dream of coming to Hastinapur will never materialise,” he said, retorting, “What is wrong with Rahul Gandhi, tell me?”
Prasad was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a FICCI Ladies Organisation programme here.
A dozen people were being projected as Prime Minister, but it did not mean that they would become the one, he said.
He also ruled out formation of a third front during the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and said, “I have been in politics for a long time now and I can tell you a third party has never come to power, nor will it ever come to power...
“There will be only two compartments, communal compartment and secular compartment, and the secular compartment will form the government,” he said.
Prasad praised Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s leadership and her move for making Manmohan Singh the Prime Minister in 2004.
“She is not a foreigner. She is the daughter-in-law of India. She has proved her large heartedness by refusing the post of prime minister in 2004,” he said.
Prasad also spoke in favour of foreign direct investment, saying that some were making misleading statements about it.
Speaking about Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s rule in Bihar, Prasad claimed that the RJD would soon come to power by ousting the present government.
“We (RJD) are coming to power in Bihar. People are with me now. Nitish government’s fall is inevitable and people will bring about that fall.”
Asked to comment on the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal he said, “If Congress had been in power, Bengal would have progressed. That’s why all of you are remembering Congress... If CPI(M) comes to power now, they will sit for 50 years.”
On the state government paying salaries to imams, he said, “Very good. But why only imams?” Sadhus and pujaris should also be given salaries, he said.
“But salary is not enough, Let there be reservations for minorities in jobs, reservations for Muslims. There is no reservation for backward Muslims, backward people.”