The Congress on Monday said it expects Rahul Gandhi to become the president of the party this year, reported The Indian Express. Reacting to reports that poll strategist Prashant Kishore has suggested Gandhi's name for the chief ministerial post in Uttar Pradesh, senior party leader Jairam Ramesh said, “I have no idea what Prashant Kishore has said or he is attributed to have said. All I can say is Rahul Gandhi is a Member of Parliament from Amethi. Rahul Gandhi is vice-president of the Congress party and we all expect Rahul Gandhi to become president of the Congress party in 2016… Rahul Gandhi obviously cannot be chief minister for 29 states… We all hope and expect…that he will be Congress president in 2016.”

Ramesh also said he did not know whether Gandhi's sister Priyanka Vadra is being considered for the post as well. Reports have suggested that Kishore is planning to pit a credible face from the Congress camp against the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates in Uttar Pradesh, where Assembly elections are scheduled in May next year. The Congress had roped in Kishore to handle its campaign for the UP polls. The 39-year-old is believed to have steered Bihar's Mahagathbandhan, or Grand Alliance, to a huge victory in the state elections last year. He was also a key strategist for the ruling BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.