New Delhi, April 14:

Senior Congress leader and Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh today said there was nothing wrong in projecting Congress MP Rahul Gandhi as the party’s next prime ministerial candidate.

“He (Rahul) has all the qualities of his father (former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi),” Singh told reporters.

“He is making sincere efforts to acquire all the information and knowledge that is required (for the top job),” Singh said. Rahul’s father, late Rajiv Gandhi, was only 40 years old when he became prime minister after his mother Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984.

The HRD minister was responding to the question whether Rahul Gandhi should be projected as prime ministerial candidate of the Congress party and the United Progressive Alliance in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections due in May 2009. Rahul Gandhi, 38, an MP from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, has lately reinforced his standing as a Congress leader through his countrywide campaigns.

Some other UPA allies have expressed apprehensions that Rahul was too raw to become prime minister. They have, however, not put their views on record.