Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday said he would welcome Congress general secretary, Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi to join his United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

"I have always said that I would welcome Rahul's entry (in the government)," the prime minister told reporters after Vice- President Hamid Ansari's oath-taking ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan presidential palace.

Rahul Gandhi is widely seen as the UPA's next prime minister candidate in the 2014 general election.

Local analysts say the Nehru-Gandhi family, led by Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi, is apparently intensifying intervention in the political affairs as the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is stepping up attack on the current government of Prime Minister Singh over various issues ranging from communal violence in Assam to high inflation and economic decline.

Sonia Gandhi recently made an unprecedented furious reaction to an attack by a senior BJP leader on the UPA government in Parliament, forcing the latter to retract his remarks that the government is "illegal".