By IANS,
New Delhi : With Sonia Gandhi content to stay in the background, a beaming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday invited all parties to support “a secular government”.
Clearly the man of the moment, Manmohan Singh said after a meeting with the Congress chief at her residence 10 Janpath: “I invite all parties to support the secular goverment. We should stand together.”
The prime minister said: “We have an obligation to the people of India to provide a stable and secular government.
“I urge all the political parties to forget their past disputes and help the formation of a secular government. We should stand one as a nation,” the prime minister said here after there was a clear verdict in favour of the Congress party.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi laater thanked people for reposing their faith in the party.
Discussing the future of her son and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi, he said: “I have always said Rahul will be a member of the cabinet. But I will have to persuade him.”
Answering a question on what role she saw for Rahul Gandhi, the party president said:
“That is the decision for the prime minister to take.”
She said: “I would like to thank the people for reposing their faith in the Congress party. Esentially, the people of India know what is good for them and they always make the right choice.”
“Once again our gratitude to them… as the prime minister has said, we have certain promises in our manifesto, in the CMP (common minimum programme). Under his leadership, we worked very hard to fulfil those promises.”
“I believe the people have appreciated the fact that we have worked hard.”