Congress' Shankersinh Vaghela is a strong candidate for the top post in the state.
Congress may have projected Sheila Dikshit as its chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh, but it has no such plans for Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, where elections are due next year.
A senior Congress leader said the party is unlikely to have a chief ministerial face in Gujarat to ensure that the state leaders contest the polls as a unit.
Congress has been out of power since 1989 in Gujarat, which is often referred to as the Hindutva laboratory of the BJP.
There are many aspirants for chief ministership in the Congress, including Shankersinh Vaghela, Bharatsinh Solanki and Shaktisinh Gohil.
Mr Vaghela, the leader of the opposition in the state and a former chief minister, had become the chief minister for a short while two decades ago with the Congress' backing after he parted ways with the BJP and formed a regional outfit. Later, he merged his party with the Congress.
Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee chief Bharatsinh Solanki is a former Union Minister and son of party veteran and former Chief Minister Madhavsinh Solanki who was credited with building a winning coalition of KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasis & Minorities) for the Congress over 30 years back.
So is All Indian Congress Committee spokesman Shaktisinh Gohil, who is a former leader of opposition in the state assembly and one of the most strident critics of PM Modi for long.
Congress leaders say the party does not want to name a chief ministerial candidate as it feels it would give rise to factionalism and bickering at a time when the BJP has lost some ground in rural areas to the main opposition entity during the Panchayat polls.
Congress had registered an impressive victory last year when it won 21 out of 31 district panchayats, while BJP managed just six. The remaining local bodies delivered a hung verdict.
In Uttar Pradesh, Ms Dikshit has been anointed Congress' chief ministerial candidate to cash in on her pro-development image as former Delhi CM and also win the sizeable Brahmin vote.
In Punjab, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has been made the party chief and declared the 'face' of the party which is locked in a three-way fight with Arvind Kejriwal's AAP on one hand and the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine on the other.
While the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab are scheduled for early next year, the Gujarat polls would take place towards the end of 2017.