Indian PM Manmohan Singh to step down after elections

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced on Friday that he will step down after elections this year, and said the next generation of the Gandhi dynasty should replace him if the ruling Congress party wins an unlikely third term.

Singh also mounted his strongest attack yet on opposition leader Narendra Modi, who has been making gains in the polls despite his links to deadly religious riots in western Gujarat state in 2002.

“In a few months’ time after the general elections, I will hand over the baton to a new prime minister,” Singh said at a rare press conference that confirmed his imminent retirement after more than nine years in power.

The 81-year-old had already hinted strongly at his intention to make way for leader-in-waiting Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Gandhi family dynasty, which has dominated India’s government since independence.

Singh said that the Congress party would declare its prime ministerial candidate in due course, with commentators speculating that an announcement could come at a meeting on January 17.

“Rahul Gandhi has outstanding credentials. I hope our party will take that decision at an appropriate time,” added the two-term prime minister, democratic India’s third-longest leader.