New Delhi:
In the already strained relations between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, another salvo comes from senior NCP leader and former Speaker of the parliament, PA Sangma, aimed at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Sangma said that a parliamentary democracy like India needs an elected Prime Minister, a member of the Lok Sabha, unlike Manmohan Singh, who is a member of Rajya Sabha.
"I am a strong believer of parliamentary system of government but in the last 15 years, I am a very disappointed man, looking at the decline of the parliamentary system. In '96, parliament elected 542 members. Nobody could become PM of India. The Lok Sabha failed to produce a PM and we had to borrow a CM from Karnataka.", said the NCP leader.
"Next government could not find a Prime Minister in Lok Sabha, and had to look for him in Rajya Sabha in 2004 and 2009. Why I am saying this is because in a parliamentary system, a country must have an elected Prime Minister and he must belong to a lower house. UK can never think of having a PM from House of Lords. It is unthinkable. That is why I am saying things are declining.", he added.