Rahul Gandhi's elevation as Congress chief to help him as main rival of Modi

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi's elevation as Congress President will help him emerge as the principal challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the party indicated today.

"What new thing you are saying?", Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh remarked while replying to a query at the AICC briefing when asked whether the plans to make Gandhi as the next party chief was aimed at making him the main challenger to Modi.

In the recently-concluded budget session of Parliament, Gandhi was at his aggressive best taking on the government on a range of issues including plight of farmers, cancellation of the Amethi Food Park and net neutrality.

Singh has been pitching for long for making Rahul Gandhi as the next party chief insisting that a generational change has to take place, wondering "can you defy the law of nature?"

Sonia Gandhi is the longest-serving president of Congress being at the helm from March 1998 when she had replaced Sitaram Kesri.

The remarks of Singh came close on the heels of reports that Congress will be coming out soon with a revised schedule for its organisational polls amid signals that the election of the next party chief is going to be delayed beyond September.

Last week, AICC announced an extension of its enrolment drive by one month from May 15 to June 15.

Amid talk that Rahul Gandhi may be anointed as the next party chief, AICC had on March 26 announced its schedule for organisational elections in which the next Congress President was to be elected by September 30.

Singh, who has been a sharp critical of the controversial land acquisition bill, took a dig at the Prime Minister saying he was following "NAMO" policy-No Agriculture, Malgovernance Only.

"While the Prime Minister is busy 'beating drums' and 'playing violin' from Japan to Monglia, a grave agrarian crisis of unprecedented scale plagues the farm sector today," he said targetting the one-year rule of Modi governement.