New Delhi: After persistently targeting Narendra Modi, Congress put up an air of nonchalance over his anointment as Prime Ministerial candidate, saying developments in any other party do not concern it even as its top brass held deliberations on the way ahead.
"We simply cannot be bothered", party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury told reporters when asked how it sees the Gujarat Chief Minister as the PM candidate of the BJP. The remarks came just hours after the party accused RSS of forcing a decision on BJP over declaring Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate.
"A Nagpur-based shadowy cabal of unaccountable geriatric gentlemen in period attire can ram decisions down BJP's throat and call it internal democracy," Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari alleged in a tweet.
"There could be possibly nothing more undemocratic than this," he said.
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma too played down the nomination of Modi saying that Congress was not bothered about the move.
"Congress is not bothered about Modi's nomination. It is for the BJP to worry what would happen after it has named Modi its prime ministerial nominee," Sharma told reporters here. "I am confident that Congress will win next year's polls," he added. Sharma said he could not understand why Modi was 'so restless to become Prime Minister'.
The Congress Core Group, comprising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party chief Sonia Gandhi and others senior leaders, met for the first time after Soniai's return from the foreign visit for a medical check up. The meeting lasted for half an hour but there was no official word on what transpired.
However, an indication of the party's revised strategy in the wake of Modi's declaration as BJP's PM candidate was clear when Chowdhary said at the AICC briefing that Congress was 'simply not bothered' who becomes what in the main Opposition party and that Congress would go to people on the basis of its policies and programmes.
Chowdhury posed the question as to how the development can affect the party.
"How does it make a difference? How does it matter to us?" Asked will have an impact on some of the decisions of Congress including declaration of its Prime Ministerial candidate now, the Congress spokesperson asserted, "our directives, our policies, our decisions have nothing to do with what is happening within the BJP."
Chowdhary at the outset talked about rising index of industrial production and 'turn around' of the country saying that good things are happening despite all kinds of talks by the 'prophets of doom'.
Chowdhary said the matrix that has been laid down by UPA will take the nation forward.
The Core Group meeting on Friday also came in the backdrop of the government moving forward on its decision for the creation of a separate Telangana.
The meeting happened on a day, when a Delhi court awarded death sentence to the four convicts in the sensational December 16 gang rape-cum-murder case. The AICC has welcomed the decision saying it will provide 'some solace' to the parents and family members of the victims.
In a tweet, Tewari charged that decisions within BJP were being influenced by corporates. "In the name of Democracy, Corporate barons and unelected autocrats effect hostile takeover of alleged Political Party Do Mourn democracy's demise," Tewari tweeted.