Indian PM in office, but 'not in power'

NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is no doubt in office, but he has never been in power during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance's 10-year rule, says a new book.

According to the book titled 'The Accidental Prime Minister', written by the Prime Minister's former media adviser Sanjaya Baru, Singh seemed to have surrendered to pressure from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and the allies of the coalition government when it came to making key Cabinet appointments.

In fact, Singh was "defanged" by the Congress in his second term, the book claimed.

"There can't be two centers of power. I have to accept that the party president is the center of power. The government is answerable to the party," the 301-page book quoted Singh as telling Baru when he was the former's adviser.

The Prime Minister's Office has dismissed the book's claims, saying that "Baru wrote fiction for commercial gains".

Singh is not running for prime minister this time and Rahul Gandhi is the Congress' prime ministerial aspirant in the ongoing general elections where the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hopes to unseat the Congress-led government.