With Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi set to be elevated as party president, Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Amarinder Singh on Monday said young Gandhi has the qualities to be Congress’ Prime Ministerial (PM) candidate in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Calling for Rahul’s projection as the PM candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Amarinder said Gandhi had generated massive enthusiasm in the party with his ability to connect with the youth.

He is very inquisitive by nature, has an eye for detail and is modern in his outlook – qualities that would stand the party in good stead if it projects Rahul as the next prime ministerial candidate, said the Punjab CM while speaking to reporters in New Delhi after nominating the party vice-president for the top Congress post.

Rejecting the charges of `parivarvad'(nepotism) behind Gandhi’s elevation as Congress president, Amarinder said the massive response he has been evoking in recent months on various fora, including the ongoing election campaign in Gujarat, indicates his huge popular support base.

He said the Congress vice president had the support of the people, with 100 per cent of the party workers favouring his elevation.

Terming the election in the Congress as the party’s internal business, the CM said even other like-minded parties had no problems with Rahul taking over the Congress reins.

To a question about Shehzad Poonawalla’s critical remarks on the issue of the Congress presidential election, Amarinder questioned his locus standii, and said that no one in the party cares about what he says.

On the coming Gujarat Assembly polls, Amarinder said the Congress was on the upswing there with Gandhi’s rallies meeting with massive response, in contrast to the campaigning by PM Narendra Modi.

Later, in an interview with a TV channel, the CM said coming civic elections in Punjab were a challenge, and in this case, the aspirations of the people were extremely high.

He said his government was slowly implementing the various promises made to the people during the Assembly elections, with farm debt waiver also set to commence this month.

On the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), he said it continued to be on a downslide, while the Shiromani Akali Dal still remained in the bad books of the people and would lose again if elections were to be held today.

The Akalis had made a mess of everything, he said, adding that his government was trying to set things right. The CM cited the examples of desecrations, which had shown a marked decline since the Congress government took over, and the drugs smugglers, whose backbone had been broken, with drugs no longer easily available in the state.