India's ruling Congress party Saturday officially appointed its youth icon Rahul Gandhi as the outfit's Vice President, a year after the clamor for his elevation began within the party.

But, with his elevation to the party's number two position after his mother Sonia Gandhi, the Congress chief, has the 42-year- old Nehru-Gandhi scion now become the over 100-year-old political outfit's prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections? The answer apparently appears to be "yes" as the Congress is hoping to score a hat-trick in the upcoming parliamentary polls.

Experts believe that officially promoting Gandhi in the party's hierarchy has a three-fold objective -- to boost the morale of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government hit by a series of scandals in its second five-year term in power; to galvanize party workers after a series of demoralizing electoral setbacks in a number of states.

And, the third and the most important objective behind Gandhi's promotion as party Vice President is to project him as an youth leader who is ready to take on the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s potential prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi who recently won a third term in office as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, one of the most developed states in western India.

"The Congress knows that it would be really difficult to gain the public confidence, given the telecom scam, Commonwealth Games scandal and the coal scam. The party is left with no other option but to project Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate for the upcoming general elections with the hope that an youth face may help to win votes," said Delhi-based political analyst Prof Ajay Singh.

Indeed the soft-spoken Manmohan Singh has not been able to defend his government adequately after the scams were exposed one by one. Though an honest leader himself, critics believe that he has failed to deliver when it came to tackling corruption, of course, inflation also.

"The Congress party in the recent past has suffered defeat in assembly polls in some states, which has demoralized the workers who now want a leadership change. They hope that an youth leader like Gandhi may be able to use his charisma to help the party rejig in the 2014 general elections," said Prof S.K. Gupta, another political expert.

But experts agree that Gandhi's charisma may not work in the upcoming general elections, given the fact that his magic failed to help the Congress win in the assembly elections in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh which sends the maximum number of members to the Indian Parliament. Congress even lost some of the seats in Uttar Pradesh assembly which they had won earlier.

Gandhi had personally taken the blame for the failure of the party to do well in the state now ruled by the regional Samajwadi Party led by its youth Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

"People clearly rejected Rahul Gandhi and chose Yadav as their leader though the Nehru-Gandhi scion did not project himself as a potential chief ministerial candidate during the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. Gandhi tried to use his charisma but voters were not convinced and they clearly sent out a message rejecting him," Prof Singh said.

He added: "Some Congress leaders in the state and many party workers had, off the record, expressed their frustration about Gandhi's ability to lead the party after Sonia Gandhi who is the widow of the country's slain Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who was often referred to as the people's leader after his mother and India's first woman Prime Minister Indira Gandhi." Yet just to message their own ego, several Congress leaders and Ministers publicly hailed Gandhi's elevation at the party meet in Jaipur.

"We would be in very capable hands if Rahul Gandhi takes over," Shashi Tharoor, a junior Minister, said as one of his colleagues, Jyotiraditya Scindia, echoed similar sentiments, saying, "He represents the demographic dividend. We want him to lead in 2014."

The political analysts say that though over 30 per cent of India's population are youth, projecting Gandhi as Congress youth icon, who can take on BJP heavyweight Modi if the Gujarat Chief Minister is projected as the opposition's prime ministerial candidate, may not actually help -- though both the leaders are single.

"People of this country are fed up with corruption and rising prices. Congress has failed to tackle corruption and arrest inflation despite its big big talks. On the other hand, Modi has delivered in Gujarat and so the people of that state embraced him as their leader for the third time. If it's Gandhi versus Modi, the latter stands a fair chance," said political commentator Prof Manoj RoyChowdhury.

Even the BJP is dismissive about Gandhi's chances to revive the Congress party.

"If they are doing it with the assumption that the fortune of the Congress will shine in 2014, they are entirely mistaken," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media.

Though Gandhi's magic may not work in the upcoming general elections, but an internal power struggle between the BJP and its ideological mentor organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, could bleak Modi's chances of getting projected as the opposition party's prime ministerial candidate before the polls.

"In the BJP, the second-rung leaders don't see eye to eye. Some have even RSS background. The party is also in a mess internally. The elections could result in a hung Parliament and a Third Front may emerge supported by the Congress to keep the BJP at bay," Prof Gupta said.

Anyway, time will only tell who emerges as the winner when India goes to polls a year-and-a-half from now.