Sonia Gandhi yesterday refused to back down from her decision not to become India's next prime minister, ignoring mass resignations of top officials in her Congress party and violent protests by her supporters.
Congress has been thrown into turmoil at a time when it should be basking in the glory of its shock election victory last week.
Violence erupted soon after news broke that Italian-born Gandhi and her senior aides had swung their support behind an alternative choice for the top job -- Manmohan Singh, a 71-year-old economic reformer. Protests were reported across the country.
Outraged party workers stormed Congress' headquarters, next to Gandhi's house in the capital, breaking doors and windows and demanding that she change her mind. By yesterday afternoon, a crowd of more than 1,000 had gathered outside.
"Either it is Sonia or nobody," some shouted, according to Press Trust of India.
The mob disrupted a press conference by disgruntled members of the Congress Working Committee, the party's highest policy-making body, who said they had collectively resigned to force Gandhi to change her mind.
But a party general secretary, Oscar Fernandes, said the tactic had had no effect and that Gandhi was adamant in her decision.
Her stand -- which follows Hindu nationalist outrage at the prospect of a foreign-born woman running the world's largest democracy -- has stunned those who voted for Congress under her high-profile leadership.
Many of her supporters are from the rural poor, left behind by India's economic boom.
Local television reports said Gandhi had ordered the party leadership to quickly go to India's president and submit Singh's name as the new prime minister, so he could be sworn-in by today. Gandhi had plans to leave town tomorrow, the 13th anniversary of the assassination of her husband, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, according to local media.
Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomber in 1991 and his mother, prime minister Indira Gandhi, was shot to death by her own bodyguards in 1984.
If Sonia had become the next leader, she would have been the fourth in the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to be prime minister. But senior allies said her children, Rahul and Priyanka, did not want her to take the post, fearing for their mother's life.
Singh is a veteran of Indian politics. The Oxford-educated former finance minister was the architect of the nation's free-market reforms of the early 1990s. His admirers credit him with helping to save the country's socialist-style economy from near collapse at the time.
"There couldn't have been better choice. He is widely respected for his integrity and vision," said C. Raja Mohan, a professor of South Asian studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
"It will also send a very good signal to the world outside. If India's economy keeps growing at a high rate, it will be able to play a bigger role in global affairs," Mohan said.
Stock markets that plunged early this week on fears of an unstable coalition under Gandhi opened higher yesterday on news that Singh was set to head the new Congress-led government. But volatility continued as the day progressed.
The Congress-led alliance did not win an outright majority in parliament and must form a minority government relying on the support of two powerful communist parties, raising fears of instability and a backtrack on plans to sell off state-owned companies.
The communists acknowledged past differences with Singh's economic policies yesterday. But they said their primary aim now is a secular government to replace Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalists.
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