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India's new PM: no 2 power centers

NEW DELHI, May 20 (UPI) -- India's prime minister-elect Manmohan Singh Thursday denied there will be two power centers in his government -- him and Congress Party head Sonia Gandhi.

"There will be no problem," he told reporters in his first news conference a day after being named prime ministerial candidate by his Congress Party. That came a day after the dramatic refusal by Gandhi to take on the nation's top elected job.

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Gandhi stayed on as head of the Congress, however, and Singh will be her deputy in the party hierarchy.

He added, however, as the Congress would head the incoming coalition government, the Congress and Gandhi would provide the nation "guidance."

"The Congress has every right to provide guidance to the government," he said.

Singh, 71, a former finance minister from 1991-96, is seen as the architect of India's economic reforms. A Sikh, he becomes predominantly Hindu India's first non-Hindu prime minister.

Singh is likely be sworn in later this week.

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