Talks on prime ministerial candidate is all smoke: Rahul

, April 4: Amid suspense over who would be the

' next prime ministerial candidate,

on Thursday dubbed as "irrelevant" and "all smoke" the debate on the issue as he insisted that no individual can fix all the complex problems of the nation.

Gandhi, who has been reluctant to join the government, described his advent into politics as "an accident of fate" and "DNA" linkage with a particular family.

"I got press guys asking when you are getting married. Somebody else saying, boss, when are you going to be the Prime Minister. Somebody saying, no your are not going to be PM, somebody say may be you will be PM. There is good possibility.

"These are irrelevant questions. It's all smoke," the 42-year-old Congress vice-president said, adding the only relevant question is how to give voice to one billion people that would solve all problems.

"It is like the American polling charts. 47.3 per cent of possibility that he might be Prime Minister," he said addressing the annual general body meeting of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.

Gandhi told the industy leaders that he is "not a hard-nosed politician" and does not want to become one.

On his being in politics, he said, "It is an accident of fate. I happen to come from a chain of people, it is my DNA. I have been put in this situation and told, boss, you are here."

He went on to add, "We have to move on in this country from the old idea of a guy and a horse. A guy will be coming on a horse, charging and everything will be fixed. It is not so."

The Gandhi family scion talked about his "frustration" on "ridiculous" focus on individuals rather the issues related to the system.

"Give all the powers to me, give all the powers to one individual you want, he cannot solve the problems of a billion people. Give the power to the billion people, the problems will be solved...I am irrelevant. I am one out of the billion Indians.

.....If you are expecting that Manmohan Singhji or somebody else to solve everything, you will keep expecting. We have to move. If you want to solve it, empower the one billion people, it will be immediately solved," Gandhi said.

The Congress vice-president rued that people talk about individuals and not about the real things.

"I get frustrated. I read the newspapers. It's all about a person. It is never about the voice of the people. It is not about the system. We got to move from the debate.

"It can't be about a person...it is ridiculous. we have to move on in this country from the old idea of the guy on the horseback charging through and going to fix everything. That is not going to work," Gandhi said.

He said that it is not important what he thinks on a particular issue. "What is important is what one billion people of the country think about it."

Earlier this year, Rahul had said that it was a "wrong question" to ask about him becoming the Prime Minister.

His comments came days after Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh sought to pitch for the Gandhi scion for the top post, saying the current arrangement of a separate party chief and prime minister has not worked.

Congress rejected Singh's contention saying the equation between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party president Sonia Gandhi was an ideal model that can continue for future.

Taking the argument of decentralisation of power further, Gandhi said that not more than 200 to 300 people in all the parties including Congress, BJP and BSP choose the odd 5000 MLAs and MPs.

"Two hundred people are defining the Lok Sabha and Assemblies," he said recalling the changes which be brought in the Youth Congress and the NSUI saying that it was "not appreciated". He also referred to the elections in the US in this regard.

Pointing out a "lot of dis-functioning" in the system, Gandhi said, "We have not build the system that integrates all the voices...in the political machine, in the government machine...the system is closed....it's a closed system."

PTI