New Delhi, Apr 7 (IANS): The "trinity" of Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will lead the Congress in the next Lok Sabha election, party spokesman Manish Tewari has said.
Speaking to Rahul Kanwal of Aajtak news channel, Tewari said: "We will go to the people with this 'Trimurti'.
"For nine years, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has given us good governance and (Congress president) Sonia (Gandhi) has held the party together," he said.
"Now, (Congress vice president) Rahul Gandhi has breathed life into the youth and invigorated the grassroots."
Tewari disagreed with party colleague Digvijaya Singh's observation that the dual power-centre experiment involving Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi was "a big failure".
Tewari said: "Digvijaya Singh is a senior leader of the party and he has an opinion on several issues. We are a democratic party and everybody is entitled to their views.
"But the party and the government have made it clear that the nine-year-old Sonia-Manmohan Singh experiment has been successful.
"We have struck a fine balance in governance, incorporating inclusivity, democracy and economic growth. The diarchy has been a huge success."
Scuttling speculation of a Rahul Gandhi versus Narendra Modi faceoff in 2014, Tewari said: "We won't be swayed by the opposition's portrayal of a particular personality.
"In 2004, we fought the elections against (prime minister Atal Bihari) Vajpayee. In 2009, we fought against (deputy prime minister L.K.) Advani. In 2014, we will contest and win again.
"We will take our performance and our vision to the people. We will portray the Congress 'Trimurti' of Rahul, Sonia and Manmohan before the people.
"And after we win, it's the Congress cadre and the party which will decide who will be the prime minister."
But will Rahul Gandhi continue to be a backroom player or will he shed his reluctance and lead from the front?
Tewari said: "Everybody has their own style of functioning. Rahul's work speaks for itself. As an MP and party general secretary, he has changed the party's grassroot structure. This is a revolution in its own.
"Now, he has taken over the reins of the party. Now, you will see his aggression in the next six months."