Mrs Gandhi Favourite For India's Next P.M.

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30960, 17 January 1966, Page 11

Mrs Gandhi Favourite For India 's Next P.M.

(N.Z. P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) NEW DELHI, Jan. 16. Mrs Indira Gandhi, daughter of the late Jawaharlal Nehru, today appeared virtually certain of becoming India’s next Prime Minister. The Chief Ministers of 11 Indian states threw their support behind her at a meeting called to discuss the succession of Premier Lal Bahadur Shastri.

They decided that Mrs Gandhi, who is aged 48. was the only person who could be unanimously elected by the Congress Party without a contest.

A representative of the Chief Ministers gave their views later to Mr Morarji Desai, the former Finance Minister and main contender for the post of Prime Minister. “There is no change in my

attitude,” Mr Desai told reporters afterwards. He said he would remain in the contest until the election was over.

But observers said Mrs Gandhi’s election was still virtually certain. Mrs Gandhi would be India’s third Prime Minister since independence and the first woman to lead the nation of 490 million people. Mrs Gandhi declined to comment on the Ministers’ decision.

“I am just a woman doing a particular job,” she said

when asked how she would feel about being India’s first woman Prime Minister,

“It just happens 1 am a woman.” The election will be held at a meeting of 551 Congress members of both Houses of Parliament.