No decision yet on Rahul as PM candidate: Cong

Declaration of Rahul Gandhi as Prime Ministerial candidate cannot be ruled out, Congress hinted today in the backdrop of conflicting statements from party leaders including Digvijay Singh.

"It has not yet been decided. When it will be decided, you will know," party General Secretary Ajay Maken told reporters. He was asked about the official position of the party on declaring Rahul the PM candidate ahead of the next Lok Sabha election.

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Speaking seperately on the issue, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari put it differently stressing that the 'trinity' of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Sonia Gandhi and Rahul will lead the Congress in 2014.

"Manmohan Singh is the Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi is the chairperson of the UPA, we have a young leader in Rahul Gandhi, who the youth identifies and empathises with and this is the trinity which would lead the Congress in 2014," Tewari said. "So I would like to beseech you, do not raise ghosts and slay them and consider yourself as a superman," he said when asked about the issue of declaration of Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate.

At the outset, Tewari said "There are certain people who are interested in pushing an agenda and do not understand the basic fundamentals of the functioning of the Congress Party." Maken and Tewari were responding to queries on the issue of projection of Rahul Gandhi as that two Congress General Secretaries Digvijay Singh and Janardan Dwivedi have made conflicting statements on the issue.

Singh had hinted that declaration of Gandhi as PM candidate ahead of polls is unlikely. But Dwivedi on Saturday dismissed as "personal opinion" comments by Digvijay Singh in this regard. "We do not have a presidential form of government. Congress party does not declare PM or CM candidates before elections.... Even in the Karnataka Assembly elections we had not declared any CM candidate," Singh, who is also a party General Secretary, had said in an interview.