Mr Gandhi has been pilloried for going off the radar.
Rahul Gandhi wanted to take some time off before the Delhi election to "introspect" and "contemplate", said Ambika Soni, a senior Congress leader, defending her Vice President's decision to take what has turned into a nationally-debated "leave of absence."
That is how the Congress has described Mr Gandhi's MIA status as a crucial session of Parliament begins. Mr Gandhi, 44, has been pilloried for going off the radar at a time when the government is presenting its first annual budget, and is under attack from the Congress for land reforms that make it easier for businesses to buy farm land for industry and infrastructure projects.
A Delhi Congress worker tweeted photos today of Mr Gandhi apparently on a trek in Uttarakhand, but the party has said those are old pictures. "What was told to all of us was that he had felt this need constantly to take a few days off to contemplate, to introspect," said Ms Soni. "If he had gone as he wanted to even before the Delhi election, then you would've said 'See. Congress is losing. He didn't want to face the field so he's gone off.' "
The Congress was decimated in last month's election in Delhi, unable to win a single seat in the city-state it had governed for 15 years. That electoral decimation was the latest in a series of results that have placed the Congress at the bottom of the heap. In last year's national election, Mr Gandhi led the Congress campaign which climaxed with the party accumulating its worst-ever performance.
Ms Soni said that before his departure - the party refuses to comment on whether Mr Gandhi is abroad - he organised the rally held by the Congress today against the Prime Minister's proposal for new land acquisition rules.