Rahul Gandhi’s reluctance to return as Congress president has caused dismay and frustration among party workers and leaders and deepened their feelings of uncertainty just days before the schedule for the party president’s election is announced.

Sources said Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot had been sounded out about donning the mantle but firmly argued before Sonia Gandhi, just before she flew abroad on Tuesday for a medical check-up, that Rahul’s pullout would further demoralise the workers.

Gehlot is said to have told Sonia that Rahul should take the final decision only after ascertaining the views of the All India Congress Committee members and Pradesh Congress Committee delegates.

Rahul’s aides, certain till Tuesday that he would not contest since he wants a party chief from outside the Nehru-Gandhi family, appeared tentative on Wednesday following the pushback from senior functionaries.

Over half-a-dozen party office-bearers, including two general secretaries, told The Telegraph that no one apart from Rahul would be acceptable to the party workers.

“Who else, if not him?” a general secretary said. “This arrangement of somebody else looking after the organisational management has worked in the BJP because Narendra Modi is Prime Minister. The Congress, out of power and desperate for a revival, needs its supreme leader to end the ambiguity about the leadership.”

He added: “Rahul is even now the supreme leader while Sonia Gandhi is party president. But that hasn’t solved the leadership question. People are talking about the vacuum. Somebody else replacing Sonia will not alter the situation.”

Another general secretary said: “It is not up to his (Rahul’s) personal wishes — if the party needs him as president, he can’t say ‘No’. He has been taking all the decisions and will lead us in the Bharat Jodo Yatra. But that is certainly not enough to settle the leadership question. It will be unfortunate if he rejects the party’s unanimous request (to become president).”

While both Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have accompanied Sonia on her foreign trip, the party has announced a Congress Working Committee meeting on August 28 to decide the schedule for the presidential election, which has to be completed in September.

Sonia will preside over the meeting through video-conferencing. Rahul will return to Delhi to address a price rise rally at the Ramlila Grounds on September 4 and kick off the Bharat Jodo Yatra on September 7.

While the BJP’s persistent attacks on “dynasty politics” may be one reason for Rahul’s reluctance to become party president again, some of his aides believe he would rather focus on building political resistance to the Modi government than get bogged down in organisational matters.

“I am there for the party, I am fighting the RSS-BJP with all my might,” Rahul tells colleagues when they plead with him to take over the party’s reins.

Rahul believes that somebody other than him should devote their entire time and energy to rebuilding the organisational machinery, solving inter-personal disputes, and prepping the party for the upcoming political battles.

Gehlot is being seen as the ideal person though one lobby is pushing for Mukul Wasnik on the grounds of seniority. Mallikarjun Kharge’s name too has been floated. While the party workers want none of them, senior leaders would settle for Gehlot, who is himself not too keen to relinquish the chief minister’s job.