Congress president Sonia Gandhi with son Rahul Gandhi during Congress' farmers rally on Sunday.
Rahul Gandhi will decide when he will take over as Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, who currently holds that position, said today in a clear indication that his elevation is now certain and only the timing needs to be worked out.
"The only answer will come from him," Mrs Gandhi told NDTV soon after her 44-year-old son and deputy made his first speech in Parliament from the opposition benches today.
"I always knew he would speak well, I always had confidence in him," Sonia Gandhi said about the 20-minute speech Mr Gandhi made in the Lok Sabha during a debate, attacking the BJP government on the plight of farmers.
Mrs Gandhi was not present in the house when Rahul spoke. At a meeting later in the day, she informed party lawmakers that she had watched him on TV.
Excited Congress MPs discussed how Mr Gandhi's speech was trending at the top on Twitter with the hashtag #RahulRoars and demanded that he speak at least once every session. Mrs Gandhi had to ask the MPs to calm down so that they could get on with the meeting's agenda.
Parliament speeches from Mr Gandhi, a lawmaker since 2004, have been few and far between.
Mr Gandhi, widely tipped to take over from his mother as party president soon, has just returned from a 57-day foreign break, during which some Congress leaders suggested that he is yet to achieve the political maturity required for the top post of a party that needs to rebuild.
They suggested that Sonia Gandhi should continue to steer the ship till it is out of the troubled waters the Congress finds itself in after its humiliating defeat in the national elections last year and multiple state elections since.
Rahul Gandhi's two aggressive speeches in support of farmers in two days - one at a public rally on Sunday and the other in Parliament today - are seen as part of an attempt to regain momentum. Also, an attempt by his party to consolidate the support of 67 per cent of India's population for a political revival.