Rahul Gandhi slowly emerged out of the self-imposed cocoon in the year that went by but in the New Year which will see Lok Sabha elections will he have a bigger role.

This is a question that is hotly discussed in Congress circles and outside.

With the Congress buoyed over the poll victory in three states and being part of government in Jammu and Kashmir, Gandhi was hailed as the ‘third pole’ in Congress after Party President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"The Congress is now on the threshold of 3-G technology; we have stood for third generation leaders who are progressive and dynamic and who can provide good governance," party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi says.

But the party appears in no hurry to pitchfork him to the front as one who may be taking over. Sonia Gandhi had answered the question on Independence Day that "certainly" Manmohan Singh will be the Prime Minister if the UPA comes back to power.

In fact, early 2008 saw the AICC not approving senior leader Arjun Singh's statement that there was no harm in projecting Rahul as the PM candidate. That time, party leaders had made it known that Manmohan Singh did not like the idea when he was occupying the prime ministerial chair.

Gandhi, who was inducted as the General Secretary of the AICC in September 2007 and made in-charge of the frontal organisations of NSUI and the IYC, took the opportunity head on.

Gandhi started the process of democratising the functioning of the NSUI and the IYC holding organizational elections for the NSUI in Uttarakhand and IYC in Punjab, to be replicated in these organisations in the rest of the country.

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