Prime Ministerial Candidates
United Progressive Alliance Following the August 2008 confidence vote victory for the current government, a statement by Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi has caused speculation that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be projected as the Prime Ministerial candidate in the next elections.[6] Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar has indicated that he is also a possible Prime Ministerial candidate post elections.[7] On January 24th, 2009, Manmohan Singh underwent cardiac bypass surgery at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.[8] Following the surgery, speculation of alternate PM candidates arose both within the Congress and amongst coalition partners. In an attempt to quell such speculations, Sonia Gandhi on February 6th, 2009, wrote in the Congress party magazine Sandesh that Manmohan Singh is the UPA coalition's Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2009 elections.[9]
National Democratic Alliance The main opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its coalition partners in the National Democratic Alliance, announced on December 11, 2007 that their candidate for prime minister would be BJP party leader Lal Krishna Advani,[10] the Leader of the Opposition. On January 23, 2008, leaders from BJP and other NDA parties convened to officially elect him their candidate[11]. No other party or alliance has announced a prime ministerial candidate.
United National Progressive Alliance A motley group of regional parties, as well as the Communist parties, have been striving to form a third front to counter the BJP-led and Congress-led alliances. Among the possible members are the United National Progressive Alliance, India's Left parties and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Once again, the media has speculated that Mayawati, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, could potentially be projected as the front's Prime Ministerial candidate, but no official move has taken place yet. If Mayawati's party can win enough seats, she has openly stated that she would be willing to take the support of the national parties to become Prime Minister. [12] No other candidate has publicly expressed interest in becoming Prime Minister thus far.
