New Delhi, December 16
The Congress appears set for a generational shift after facing poll debacle in four major states recently. The party has called an All India Congress Committee (AICC) session next month where the possibility of Rahul Gandhi’s much-awaited coronation as the prime ministerial candidate cannot be ruled out.

There is a growing consensus in the party that this should be done at the earliest and who knows January 17 might turn out to be the “opportune time for the announcement of party’s PM candidate” as mentioned by party chief Sonia Gandhi on December 8, the day Congress lost Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi elections.

The first signals of the writing on the wall came today from Priya Dutt, a highly active member of Rahul’s young brigade and party’s secretary in charge of communications. She minced no words in hinting that the AICC session might address the leadership issue that everyone would welcome.

“I think the entire Congress is looking forward to the AICC session and if an announcement is made on the lines of a PM candidate, we all will be very happy.

Everyone knows the party just has one leader.

“We wish Rahul Gandhi is projected. Right now, there is consensus in the party on his name and I do not think I have to explain that.

“His leadership is a matter of consensus and this has been expressed earlier also,” said the Lok Sabha member from Mumbai North-Central.

This is for the first time any office-bearer of the Congress has expressed an urge for Rahul Gandhi’s immediate coronation publicly from Congress’ dais.

On the fact that the BJP has an edge over the Congress as it portrayed Narendra Modi its PM candidate way in advance, the young leader said “Rahul may not have been aggressively projected as a PM candidate, but subtly he had been projected as such for a long time”.

She was referring to Rahul Gandhi’s hold over party organisation that he chose to strengthen after his elevation as the Congress vice-president in Jaipur’s Chintan Shivir last year.

An interesting coincidence is that the three-day Chintan Shivir in Jaipur also began on January 17.

Top leaders when contacted on whether Rahul could be elevated next month said, “We can’t rule that out though such things are never made official.”

Party’s old guard, however, still feels it would not be easy for Sonia to name the PM candidate because it would entail asking the PM to sit out. “That would be awkward,” said a senior leader.

But the party agrees on one thing — no matter how tough the decision of anointing a PM candidate is, the Congress president will have to take it now considering that the Lok Sabha elections just around the corner.