Vadodara:
Union Minister Jairam Ramesh has said that election in India is "not a beauty contest." Mr Ramesh was commenting on media reports of the 2014 general elections being a Rahul Gandhi-vs-Narendra Modi battle.
"In our country elections are not contested between personalities. Our nation polls are not a beauty contest. It is fought between political parties. Based on its manifesto, ideology and performance, a party contests an election," the minister for rural development said in Vadodara yesterday.
"Our system is not like the one in America - the presidential system wherein two people contest polls and based on how one looks, talks or cracks a joke. Elections should not be trivialised, it is a serious matter," he said.
There is much clamour in the respective parties of both men that they be named the prime ministerial candidate for the next general elections.
Mr Modi's re-election for a third time in Gujarat in December has forced even detractors within the party to realise his worth as a vote-getter. The Bharatiya Janata Party or the BJP, however, has not announced what role Mr Modi will play in the 2014 elections. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United), a major ally in the National Democratic Alliance, which the BJP rules, has made its displeasure evident on the prospects of Mr Modi being announced as the PM candidate.
The Congress too is yet to declare that Mr Gandhi will be its candidate for PM.