Prime Minister Rules Out Third Term NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday that he would not be India's next prime minister if the Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance wins the national elections scheduled for this spring. "In a few months" time, after the general election, I will hand the baton over to a new prime minister," Mr. Singh said. I hope it will be a U.P.A.-chosen prime minister, and our party will work to that end in the campaign for the general elections. The prime minister also expressed his support for Rahul Gandhi, vice president of the Congress Party and scion of the powerful Gandhi family, as the party's choice for the post of prime minister in the national elections. "Rahul Gandhi has outstanding credentials to be nominated, and I hope our party will take the decision at an appropriate time," said Mr. Singh. At his first formal news conference since 2011, Mr. Singh defended a battered central government, which has faced serious allegations of corruption and inaction over the last decade, by calmly listing the achievements during his two terms, which now span nearly 10 years. He said the governing coalition has made efforts to combat corruption and initiate investigations after the government was accused of fraudulently allotting wireless phone licenses and coal fields to business groups. . "We have taken major steps to change the existing procedures for allocation of spectrum and coal by shifting to auctions so that these problems do not arise in future," said Mr. Singh. "Where some decisions taken earlier, when allocations were made administratively, have come under question, they are being investigated," he said. The scandals and a stagnant economy have taken a toll on the Congress Party's fortunes at the polls. In recent state assembly elections, the party was routed in four states and managed to retain power only in the northeastern state of Mizoram. Congress's main rival, the Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., retained power in the states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh and wrested the state of Rajasthan from the Congress Party. The B.J.P. also finished with the most number of seats in the city-state of Delhi with 31, while the Congress Party was reduced from 43 seats to eight. Mr. Singh's strongest words were reserved for Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat and the B.J.P."s prime ministerial candidate. After a journalist asked Mr. Singh whether his party was responsible for his image as a weak prime minister, Mr. Singh said he did not believe that he had been an ineffectual leader and that it was up to the historians to judge him. "If by strong prime minister you mean that you preside over the mass massacre of innocent citizens in the streets of Ahmedabad, that is a measure of strength I don't think this country needs, least of all, in its prime minister," said Mr. Singh, referring to the violent riots that occurred in Gujarat in 2002 while Mr. Modi was the state's chief minister. Mr. Singh added that he sincerely believed it would be disastrous for the country to have Mr. Modi as its prime minister. Rajnath Singh, president of the B.J.P., called the prime minister's remarks unfortunate. "Narendra Modi was a leader who transformed Gujarat into a model state through development and progress, and saying that the country will go into ruins if he becomes the prime minister is very laughable," the B.J.P. president told reporters. What happened in 2002 was a tragedy, he said, but he noted that both the Supreme Court and the court's special investigation team cleared Mr. Modi of any responsibility for the riots.