New Delhi : It’s one step closer to the coronation. In Sonia Gandhi’s absence, the hierarchy-conscious Congress party has offered the honours of performing a party ritual loaded with symbolism to the crown prince.

It is only in the event of him declining the job, will it be passed on to the senior-most Congressman available, Treasurer Motilal Vohra, who’s next to Sonia in the formal pecking order.

So Rahul willing, this Independence Day, the tri-colour over the headquarters of the Indian National Congress will be unfurled by him. Rahul, now in the US overseeing his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s treatment, is expected to be back by then.

The Congress Core Committee which met in Rahul’s absence and took decisions in his name, decided that he should step into his mother’s shoes for the flag hoisting ceremony at 24, Akbar Road on August 15.

Said a top Congress leader, it’s time that the youth of the party came forward and sent a message to the rest of the party and the country that “there is continuity in change”. Gandhi is, of course, the present continuous in the Congress hierarchy. With Sonia likely to be out-of-action for a while, the current Congress top-brass wants to convert what could be a vacuum that might have ordinarily caused depression into a mood swinger.