PM lacks leadership qualities to run UPA govt: Sushma Swaraj

Dewas (MP), April 3: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha

on Wednesday said Prime Minister

lacked the leadership qualities required to steer a coalition government. "Though Manmohan Singh is the Prime Minister, he is not a leader. For running a coalition government, you need a good experienced leader," Swaraj told PTI here.

Swaraj was reacting to Singh's statement that "managing coalition is not easy". Singh, addressing a CII AGM in New Delhi on Wednesday, said: "Corruption is a problem. Bureaucratic inertia is a problem. Managing coalition is not easy. But these problems have not arisen suddenly. They were all there even earlier when the economy was growing at 8 per cent."

The BJP leader said: "The problem with the prime minister is that his own party members do not talk to him because of which he is encountering difficulties in running the coalition government." She is in Dewas to take part in the district planning committee meeting of her party. Swaraj said former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee did not face any difficulty in running the BJP-led NDA coalition as he was an "able leader".

"For running a coalition government, you need to take along all your partners which Manmohan Singh was unable to do," Swaraj said against the backdrop of DMK's exit from UPA. On BJP President Rajnath Singh's new team, she said, "The party president is an experienced leader and his new team will ensure BJP's victory in the next Lok Sabha polls."

PTI