Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma said on Monday that the next Lok Sabha elections will see a direct fight between Rahul Gandhi and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
A day after he said that Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was “dreaming” of becoming Prime Minister, Mr. Verma said on Monday that parties like the SP did not have an all-India presence and hence could not form a government at the Centre.
“The government [at the Centre] will either be of the Congress or Mr. Modi’s. Why are they [SP] misleading? Does the public not understand all this.... If Mr. Gandhi is our candidate, then the election in the 2014 polls will be Mr. Gandhi versus Mr. Modi. No other party is in between them,” Mr. Verma said.
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He, however, steered clear of drawing a parallel between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi saying, “If Mr. Gandhi becomes the Prime Minister, he will do so with the blessing of Dr. Singh.”