In September, Dr Manmohan Singh had told NDTV that Rahul Gandhi was an ideal choice for the country's top job. (File picture)
The Prime Minister will not announce his resignation at a press conference on Friday, as speculated in some newspapers, said sources in his office to NDTV. However, senior leaders in his party say he will set the stage for the projection of
Rahul Gandhi as the Congress party's prime ministerial candidate.
Dr Manmohan Singh's press conference this week is only his second in his current term as prime minister and comes nearly a month after his party endured a humiliating defeat in elections in important states including Delhi.
To counter the perception that his party will struggle to reverse its fortune in the national election now just months away, Dr Singh is expected to use his press conference to highlight the accomplishments of his government and to prep the ground for the announcement of Mr Gandhi as his party's presumptive prime minister.
Mr Gandhi, 43, is No 2 in the Congress after his mother, Sonia, who is party president.
Though he has not been nominated as the Congress party's candidate for prime minister, Mr Gandhi led the campaign for recent important elections in states like Delhi and Rajasthan. The Congress was routed, with angry voters punishing it for inflation and corruption at the centre.
In September, Mr Gandhi excoriated a decision cleared by the cabinet to shield convicted politicians from being forced to quit parliament if they are convicted of serious crimes. Mr Gandhi described the executive order passed by Dr Singh as "nonsense" and dramatically tore it up at a press conference. His criticism was seen as a sharp under-mining of the PM who was away on a foreign tour.
(Rahul Gandhi calls ordinance on convicted lawmakers 'nonsense')On his plane on the way home, Dr Singh expressed unhappiness over the timing of Mr Gandhi's outburst. Before that incident, he had told NDTV that Mr Gandhi was an ideal choice for the country's top job, and that he was willing to work under him after 2014 in the party.