New Delhi, June 17: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today indicated readiness to make way for Rahul Gandhi if the UPA wins the Lok Sabha elections next year.

As a beaming Prime Minister avowed the UPA would get a third term and would be happy to see Rahul step into his shoes, top Congress managers explained how the party position was being fortified at a time when the rival combine was crumbling.

Minutes after the cabinet reshuffle at Rashtrapati Bhavan, which looked like a vacancy-filling formality, Singh said: “We will have a third go as the UPA and the people will again repose their faith in us.”

He described Rahul as “a natural leader” and said, “I would be happy to see him step into my shoes.”

If the reshuffle was primarily intended to redeem the political situation in key problem areas like Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh and reinforce the newly conquered fronts like Karnataka, the Prime Minister also chose the opportunity to fish in troubled waters on the other side of the fence.

Rubbing salt on the BJP’s wounds, he declared that Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was a “secular leader.”

The brief remark was intended to send a larger message that the BJP’s choice of Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate would indeed trouble secular leaders.

Asked if his party would seek a partnership with Nitish, the usually reticent Prime Minister delivered a teaser, saying: “In politics there are no permanent friends or enemies; we decide as the situation evolves.” He hastened to add, “we have always sought support from all right-thinking parties”.

The Prime Minister also dismissed the perceived threat from Modi, arguing that the people know what he stands for. Singing a similar tune, the new head of the Congress’s communication department, Ajay Maken, had said barely an hour earlier, “what happened in Bihar will have a long-term impact on national politics. Modi has to make himself acceptable to the BJP and the NDA before we have to deal with him”.

In fact, the Congress demonstrated its eagerness to address its fundamental concerns instead of getting ruffled by the “Modi hype” as the leadership believes elections are fought on local issues, socio-political dynamics and performance, not on personality cult. The reshuffles, both in the party and the government, looked like a “repair job,” with every nut-&-bolt issue being seriously attended to.

There were reports that some sections of the people were angry in Rajasthan and the BJP was planning a big comeback with at least 20 out of the total 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The government responded decisively by re-inducting veteran Sis Ram Ola to pacify Jats and sent a clear message to the Brahmins by making C.P. Joshi the party general secretary and Girija Vyas a cabinet minister.

With chief minister Ashok Gehlot being a backward, the party has attempted to woo two powerful communities of Brahmins and Jats. Ola, an eight-term MLA and five-term MP, was brought back into the cabinet despite his old age; he would turn 86 in a few days, as he commands enormous support in the entire Shekhawati region of northern Rajasthan.

While Ola will be the new labour minister, Vyas, a four-term Lok Sabha MP, has been given the housing & urban poverty alleviation ministry. By giving the important railway ministry to Mallikarjun Kharge, the party has sent a positive message to the Dalits in Karnataka where Siddaramaiah, an OBC, was preferred to be the chief minister. Oscar Fernandes, also from Karnataka, has been given road transport & highways.

The Congress hopes to reap a rich harvest in Karnataka to offset the losses elsewhere as the BJP, which won 19 out of the 28 seats in the state, is in complete disarray there. The fourth cabinet minister is from troubled Andhra Pradesh, where the party’s fortunes are going downhill fast.

The party made its dynamic leader Digvijaya Singh the in-charge of Andhra to salvage the situation and chose K.S. Rao, a powerful business tycoon, to be the minister (of textiles) to bolster its chances, at least outside the Telangana region. It also picked former Dalit IAS officer J.D. Seelam for minister of state for finance despite the high presence of ministers from Andhra.

Maharashtra is another state where the BJP-Shiv Sena is itching to slice away the Congress cake. But the leadership couldn’t respond adequately on this front as only one MoS has been given in place of four cabinet vacancies from the state. Manikrao Gavit, the old gentleman, has been brought back as a junior minister in the social justice department whereas the state had Shivraj Patil, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Gurudas Kamat and Mukul Wasnik holding cabinet rank in the past. Though the leader of the Lok Sabha and home minister, Sushil Shinde, is from Maharashtra, and Gurudas Kamat has been made the AICC general secretary, the state leaders are angry with this reshuffle.

Two other new faces — Santosh Chowdhury, a Dalit from Punjab, and ENS Nachiappan from Tamil Nadu — have been given health and commerce respectively in the MoS rank. With the fresh inductions in the reshuffle, probably the last before the general elections, the strength of the Union council of ministers has gone up to 77.