Jayanthi Natrajan, the Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu, contradicted the statement of Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Karunanidhi that the time has come to make Rahul Gandhi the prime minister.
"I would like to put it on record that Dr Manmohan Singh and his team have done excellent work. There is no vacancy for the post of prime minister," she said at her first press conference as All India Congress Committee spokesperson in Parliament.
Asked if the Congress High Command would take action against Arjun Singh for giving rise to speculation by speaking out of turn, Natrajan said she would like to stick to her brief. "I am not going beyond my statement," she said.
She refused to answer a specific question whether the party would like to project a prime ministerial candidate in the next election.
She said her party could not confirm the statement attributed to former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Mohammad Sayeed that the government of India should agree to having both Indian and Pakistani currencies in the valley. The BJP had taken strong exception to the what it called anti-national act and asked Congress to disassociate itself from Sayeed's People's Democratic Party.
"The issue of controlling currency lies strictly with the Union government. As I said earlier we are in the process of confirming the statement because the spokesman of the party has already denied the controversial part of Mufti's speech," she said.
