Exception was made in 2009 when party President Sonia Gandhi had at a press conference released a party document that showed her and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the cover and blocked her picture to say Singh would be the candidate.
The party leadership may rely on that tradition and entrust the responsibility of campaign or Working President, although there is little doubt that there will be clamour at the AICC meeting to make him a candidate.
AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh had last week said there was no need for the party to declare a prime ministerial candidate before the elections.
Meanwhile, Rahul attended the meeting of the Congress Core Group ahead of tomorrow's Working Committee meeting. It lasted two hours.
"Rahul is among the top three leaders. He is the principal campaigner whose leadership will strengthen the party", party spokesman Sandip Dikshit told reporters in reply to a volley of questions on the issue of PM candidate of the party.
At the same time, he said that one cannot predict what AICC will decide. "AICC is a large body. Sometimes people's opinion becomes party's policy. You cannot predict what AICC will do".
