Archive for Wednesday, May 19, 2004  Sonia Gandhi abandons bid
for prime minister  May 19, 2004   — Sonia Gandhi said Tuesday
she would "humbly decline" to be the next prime minister of
India, a decision that stunned her supporters and followed Hindu
nationalist outrage over the prospect of a foreign-born woman
leading the nation.  Gandhi, an Italian who became an Indian
citizen 21 years ago when she married former Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi, did not say whom she would nominate for the post.
The favorite appeared to be Manmohan Singh, the architect of
India's economic liberalization program during the last
Congress-led government from 1991 to 1996.  "The post of prime
minister has not been my aim," Gandhi told Congress party
members in Parliament. "I was always certain that if ever I
found myself in the position I am in today, I would follow my
inner voice. I humbly decline the post."  Gandhi's Congress
party and allies trounced the Hindu-nationalist party of Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Democ