Zee Media Bureau/Ritesh K Srivastava
New Delhi: A day after the Core Committee of the Congress met to discuss Rahul Gandhi`s future role, the Working Committee of the party is set to meet on Thursday to deliberate further on the issue and finalise a strategy for the upcoming General Elections.
Today`s meting is crucial as it comes a day ahead of the plenary session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) where a decision on declaring party vice president Rahul Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate may be taken.
Interestingly, Rahul Gandhi, who had recently thrown enough indications that he is willing to take a bigger role and lead the party from the front in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, attended the party`s core group meeting held at the Prime Minister`s residence yesterday.
The Congress core group meet was attended by the party`s senior-most leaders and Rahul is expected to attend meetings of all major party forums in the run-up to the General Elections in May.
However, sources also claim that despite all hype and speculation, Rahul Gandhi may not be named the party`s prime ministerial candidate on January 17.
A section of the Congress party is reportedly against projecting Rahul as PM candidate immediately and does not want him to be exposed to the tirade of Narendra Modi, the main opposition BJP`s PM candidate.
If sources are to be believed. then instead of being named as the PM candidate, Rahul could be elevated as the Congress working president at the AICC session.
At the moment, the party central leadership is said to weighing all options regarding Rahul Gandhi.
Before making any major announcement on Rahul Gandhi, the party leaders want to deliberate on three main options - conferring him as its prime ministerial candidate, promoting him to Working President, or declaring that he will lead the campaign for the national election that must be held by May.
Rahul, in an interview published recently, had indicated that he is ready for the top job.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already ruled himself out of a third term if the ruling UPA comes back to power. Manmohan has already praised Rahul`s "outstanding credentials".
If officially nominated, Rahul would take on BJP`s Narendra Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
