When Veerapa Moily mistakenly announced that the victory in Rajasthan was because of  Rahul Gandhi's [Images] extensive campign, the media-persons were quick to ask if the party was planning  install  the younger Gandhi as the next prime minster or name him as a replacement for the present incumbent.

"There is no question of replacing Manmohan Singh [Images], there is no need to replace him as our prime minister," Moily said.  He praised Congress president Sonia Gandhi [Images] who handled the massive campaign along with her son Rahul and the PM.

Moily also complimented Delhi [Images] Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for her splendid performance and winning the elections for a record third time. Moily ridiculed the Bharatiya Janata Party's claim that the two major issues before Dr Singh's government were fighting terrorism and recession.

"If these issues had worked then the BJP would have swept the polls. Our Prime Minister Dr Singh has shown it to the world how to combat recession. Rajnath Singh and L K Advani [Images] fared miserably in countering Sonia Gandhi's aggressive campaign," he said.

Moily denied that the good performance by the Congress meant that the Union government would think of going for  early Lok Sabha polls. "There  is no such move. The Lok Sabha polls would be held on schedule as announce by the prime minister and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi," the chief spokesman of the party said.