Rahul Gandhi may be anointed Congress' PM candidate at AICC meet in January

New Delhi: Congress is holding an AICC meeting here on January 17 after the poll debacle in four states, amid a "consensus" over Rahul Gandhi's leadership as its Prime Ministerial candidate as "people are looking for a face".

Party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi announced the decision of holding the AICC meeting to be attended by a thousand odd delegates from across the country here, almost one year after the Jaipur Chintan Shivir where Rahul was elevated as the party's Vice President.

Hours after the announcement, party spokesperson and AICC media secretary Priya Dutt said that entire party is looking forward to the session and an announcement regarding PM candidate will make them "very very happy".

"I think the entire Congress party, and not just the youngsters in the Congress party, are looking forward to the session and if there is an announcement made on the lines of announcing the Prime Ministerial candidate, I think we all will be very-very happy. "We would wish Rahul Gandhi is projected and he does take it on for the future. Right now there is a consensus in party and I do not think I have to explain that and I think all of us know it. This has been expressed even earlier also that it is his leadership which has the consensus in the party," Dutt told reporters.

She was replying to a question about the mood in the party over announcing Gandhi as PM candidate or his taking over as Prime Minister before the elections.

To another question whether Rahul is the panacea for all ills facing the party, she said, "We should not think of anything as a remedy. "We are not looking at anything as a remedy as you know that Congress party had never projected anybody as CM candidate or PM candidate but today we feel and I think everyone here agrees that people are looking for a face," she stressed.

The AICC meeting comes close on the heels of the party's drubbing in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi just months away from the Lok Sabha polls.

Party spokesman Bhakt Charan Das dismissed suggestions that Rahul Gandhi should take the blame for the poll debacle. "I don't think you can fix blame on one person," he said when asked as to how could Gandhi be named the PM candidate of the party after the debacle in the Assembly polls in which he played a key role in campaigning and strategy.

While BJP had named Narendra Modi as PM candidate in September, there has been criticism that Congress has been reticent about naming its nominee.

On the day the Assembly poll results came, party chief Sonia Gandhi said that the party would announce its Prime Ministerial candidate at an opportune time. Deliberations at AICC meetings are held on the prevailing political situation and on other important issues, Das said.

The meet has been called at a time when Congress is facing an uphill task with the emergence of Modi as a force to reckon with and some allies of UPA sending warning signals, the latest being DMK which made it clear that it will not have any alliance with Congress in the Lok Sabha polls. NCP chief Sharad Pawar had also targeted the Congress leadership, saying people do not like "weak leaders".

Party chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul have already said there would be deep introspection on the reverses. The Congress Vice President had suggested that the party would effect "changes beyond imagination".

Asked what prevented Rahul Gandhi from becoming the party's main face for the next elections, Dutt said that after he was made the Vice President, Gandhi's work began more aggressive within the organisation and he never desired to become the Prime Minister.

"We all know that Sonia Gandhi is the President of the party and is in the top most position". Besides, she said that there has always been "subtle" projection of Rahul for the top job. "There has not been an aggressive projection, but there has been subtle projection from the beginning," she said.