MUMBAI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ’s daughter wanted her father to quit after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi at a press conference in Delhi tore up the Cabinet decision allowing convicted persons to contest elections and described it as nonsense. Sanjaya Baru , author of the book ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ who was in Mumbai on Wednesday to launch the book, said when the UPA came back to power in 2009, he had on several occasions advised Singh to resign. “Finally, after the incident, I came on television and said he should quit. And I got an sms (text message) from his daughter, ‘I agree with you’.”Baru said Singh believed the 2009 Lok Sabha victory was his. “I had never seen Singh sit cross-legged. But that day (June 2, 2009) when I went to meet him, he was sitting cross-legged talking about the victory. But no one credited him as the author of that victory. My friend Prithviraj Chavan, whom Singh brought in as minister of state (PMO), told a news channel the credit went to Rahul Gandhi.”Baru, however, declined to name which of the two daughters wanted the father to quit. He said his book was an analysis of a very unique experiment in Indian politics. “It worked for five years. It stopped working for the next five years,” he said.The model of the head of government (Prime Minister) reporting to the party head was dead, said Baru. “Jyoti Basu as chief minister would daily report to the party general secretary Pranab Dasgupta. He stopped after Dasgupta passed away. The only other party where it worked was when Manohar Joshi was chief minister of Maharashtra who reported to Bal Thackeray, the Shiv Sena chief,” he said.“Not because both Rahul and Priyanka are Indians but Indian politics too has moved on. Indians want a credible leadership,” he said. The institution of Prime Minister had weakened during this period, said Baru.About India Inc not being mentioned in his book except for the one line reference to Ratan Tata, Baru said India Inc did not loom large in UPA I as the economy was doing well. Baru said another reason why businessmen come to the Prime Minister is to lobby. “I think it involved others,” he said.An episode he did not mention in his book he said was when Laxmi Mittal was in the process of taking over the French company Arcelor, Singh had stepped forward and argued for Mittal to the French president. “This was 2007. No questions were raised.”Baru said there were two reasons why Singh threatened to resign over the nuclear deal — one the agreement was approved by the Union Cabinet and the US had been informed that India was willing to sign it. Second, Singh had come around to the view that it was the only initiative that was identified with him. “It was combination of India’s honour and his legacy at stake,” said Baru.