It’s 2014, just after the general elections and the national debate on who will be the PM is heating up. A look at how the main characters are lined up, and how they act, react and enact the PM-in-the-wings role before the curtains go up on the 16th Lok Sabha.

Sonia Gandhi: As chairperson of UPA-37 (it came apart and came together 35 times in the last few months), Gandhi stands a good chance of remaining the chairperson of UPA-93 by the time the next elections are on the horizon. She has already said no to becoming the PM for the 122nd time this week, the import of which is more or less the same as in 2004, when she passed the baton on to Manmohan Singh. Expected to remain close to the curtains even after they go up.

Memorable quote: “The question does not arise” — originally said when asked about a change in tenant at the PM’s residence but can be used for generally everything and issue, whether in vogue or out of it.

Manmohan Singh: As the incumbent PM, he is expected to pass on the baton if the Congress loses, and to either pass on the baton or stay on at 7-Race Course Road, depending on the tailwind or headwind, and/or the mood of fellow aspirant (or non-contender, again depending on the aforementioned mood of the day) Rahul Gandhi. Having made his opinion on few issues other than the nuclear thunderbolt in 2008, when he put his government to the sword, he is not expected to elaborate much on either his chance/preference of being a third-time PM or the choice of topping on his pizza.

Memorable quote: “Hazaron jawaabon se achchhi hai meri khamoshi (my silence is better than a thousand answers”) — mouthed in the aftermath of the coal block allocation scam but can be generally used for anything related to governance, misgovernance or non-governance in India, Pakistan or Peru.

Narendra Modi: As the man about to enter the Guinness or some such records for smiling on the cover of most Indian magazines, the three-time Gujarat chief minister is said to be a no-nonsense man and is also beginning to be known as the not-be-seen man back in Gujarat. Called by critics as the non-resident CM, Modi attended 200-odd meetings of different councils of the BJP to thank everyone present after they shouted Modi-for-PM at the said meetings. Confident of being under the spotlight once the curtains are off and the arclights on, he is said to have ordered manufacturers to make one billion Modi masks for his swear-in ceremony, where many expect him to keep up the swearing against the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Memorable quote: “Maana ki andhera ghana hai, par diya jalana kahan mana hai? (agreed that darkness/gloom hangs heavy, but who is stopping us from lighting a lamp?)” — spewed out at one of BJP’s initial conclaves at New Delhi on March 3, 2013. It was a line borrowed promptly by several electricity departments, better noire Mulayam, Akhilesh and Company’s Uttar Pradesh being the first, which efficiently switched off whatever power they delivered and offered diyas and matchboxes to customers instead of electricity bills.

Rahul Gandhi: To be or not be was a line written for Hamlet and meant for junior Gandhi. A product of Jawaharlal Nehru School of Discovering India, he set to sail immediately after being selected the Congress vice-president at a chintan baithak in Jaipur, where Congress honchos, according to legend, put their heads together to discuss the party’s future and came up with an answer in one and half seconds flat: Rahul Gandhi for PM. Having held, called for, assembled and organised 1,387 meetings of Congress functionaries of all levels in a cross-country marathon meeting relay, Gandhi is yet to figure out whether he should or should not be the PM.

Memorable quote: “Until we start to respect and empower people for their knowledge and understanding, we can’t change anything in this country” — said at the said Jaipur chintan baithak in January 2013. No one has been able to crack the code of that line and decipher the deeper meaning or import of it but last heard, it was exported successfully to some neighbouring countries, whether police wannabes are making similar statements.

Sharad Pawar: An early aspirant for the office for which he had to quit the Congress, his was one of the last hats to be thrown in the ring — by NCP man and close confidante Praful Patel. While Patel said in a TV interview in March 2013 that Pawar is ready to become the PM provided there is a consensus, the question, though, is whether the Pune strongman actually is ready, as it came within four weeks of Pawar’s decision to quit parliamentary politics. “I don’t want to come to Parliament again. It’s been 46 years continuously...,” Pawar had said at a lunch hosted by the same Patel in New Delhi on Jan 31, 2013. Like always, Pawar, the past, present and future strongman of Pune and the Indian cricket board, is keeping all options open, including the option of opening new options if the need arises.

Memorable quote: "I am working very hard to control prices" — said in January 2010. That hard work may not be the best policy was seen in ensuing years, as prices kept rising. Besides vegetables and foodgrain, price tags of cricketers also increased as the IPL seasons wore on, much to the fright of the spectators.

OTHERS BY THE RINGSIDE
Pranab Mukherjee: (muses from within the confines of Rashtrapati Bhawan: what could have been)
PA Sangma: (muses: what can be; amuses everyone else).
P Chidambaram: (muses about Karunanidhi’s ideas for dhoti-clad Tamil as PM).