PM all set to return to Rajya Sabha for fourth consecutive term

Guwahati, May 08 (UNI) Asom is all set to return Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the Upper House for the fourth consecutive term since 1991.

Dr Singh would arrive in his "adopted home state" today to file his nomination for the May 24 Rajya Sabha poll, made necessary by the expiry of his term on June 14.

While Dr Singh's election was a mere formality now, the contender for the second seat to be vacated by BJP's Indramoni Bora was yet to be finalised.

When Dr Singh began his political innings in 1991 after being sent to the Upper House from Asom, it could have been hard to visualise this person, an academic-turned-bureaucrat-turned- politician, who revolutionised the financial scene of the country as the man at helm of affairs of this largest democracy in the world.

But when Congress chief Sonia Gandhi refused the the top post after the 2004 General election, Dr Singh was the next choice by all in the coalition.

The Prime Minister was first elected to the Rajya Sabha from Asom in 1991 at the initiative of former Asom Chief Minister late Hiteswar Saikia, who allowed his residence at Sarumataria here to be used as residential address of Dr Singh, and ever since, it had remained the permanent address of the latter.

As the state was under the President's Rule at that time, Asom was a safer bet for getting him into the Upper House than his home state Punjab or his workplace Delhi.

Dr Singh was handpicked by former Prime Minister late P V Narashima Rao to head the Finance Ministry.

The wonders Dr Singh worked for the country's financial health was part of legend now and he went on to become the only Finance Minister of the country to present five consecutive budgets.

He was reelected to the Rajya Sabha from Asom in 1995 rpt 1995 and 2001.

Though a low-key politician, Dr Singh was Leader of the Opposition from 1998 to 2004, when the BJP-led NDA was in the saddle at the Centre.

He did contest the Lok Sabha election in 1999 from South Delhi, but lost to Mr Vijay Kumar Malhotra of the BJP.

The most highly educated Prime Minister in the world at present, Dr Singh was an academician before taking up bureaucratic assignments, including Chief Economic Adviser at the Finance Ministry, and several stints in different capacities like Director, Reserve Bank of India, and later Governor, Secretary and later Deputy Chief of Planning Commission, Secretary, Finance Ministry, and Joint Chairman, Indo-Japan Joint Study Committee.

UNI