Mrs Sonia Gandhi stunned India yesterday by refusing to become the country's first foreign-born prime minister, further intensifying the week-long political drama and turbulence following last week's surprise general election results. Rahul Bedi reports from New Delhi
She gave no reason for her decision, other than humility. But Congress party insiders said it followed Hindu nationalist outrage over her Italian origins and pressure from her two children who feared for her safety.
"We have lost our father, we don't want to lose our mother as well," Mr Jyoti Basu, a senior Communist Party leader and Congress party ally, claimed Mrs Gandhi's children, Rahul and Priyanka, had stated.
Mrs Gandhi's husband, Rajiv, and his mother, Indira, whom he succeeded as prime minister, were both assassinated.
The Oxbridge-educated former Congress party finance minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, now appears to be the frontrunner for India's top political job.
A technocrat who spearheaded India's market reforms in the early 1990s, Mr Singh (72) is expected to be nominated by Mrs Gandhi to head the majority Congress-led coalition in parliament, in effect making him the country's first Sikh prime minister.
Analysts believe the amiable Mr Singh, likely to be sworn into office over the next few days, could strike a workable balance with Communist Party MPs whose support, crucial to the Congress-led alliance for a parliamentary majority, led to India's financial markets on Monday falling to their lowest levels in over a century.
Nervous markets feared a slowdown of India's economic and labour reforms under left-wing pressure.
But markets soared to record heights in the afternoon, following reports that Mrs Gandhi - who became an Indian citizen 16 years ago and only after her husband became prime minister - had decided against assuming the country's premiership.
Most Indians, including those who voted for the Congress party, remain embarrassed by the thought of having a foreign-born leader representing them.
"The post of prime minister has not been my aim," a wooden-faced Mrs Gandhi told newly elected Congress MPs.
"I was always certain that if ever I found myself in the position I am in today, I would follow my inner voice. I humbly decline the post," the 57-year-old widow declared in the parliament's Central Hall days after leading her alliance to a surprise victory over the Hindu nationalist coalition of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Mrs Gandhi said that her responsibility at this "critical juncture" was to provide India with a secular, strong and stable government.
She declared with a determined finality that she would not reconsider her decision - despite innumerable MPs pleading with her to do so.