Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh at the plenary. (PTI)

Hyderabad, Jan. 21: It’s Rahul, Rahul all the way.

If posters plastered all over the place are to be believed, sunny days will be back again with a wave of Rahul Gandhi’s hand and a flash of his dimpled smile.

At least that’s what 10,000-odd delegates today woke up to as they converged in Rajiv Gandhi Nagar on Hyderabad’s periphery for the Congress plenary.

Rahul is not simply the hope of the party but “the hope of the nation”, screamed a poster. The only antidote, as it were, to the Karnataka coup, the ghosts of Quattrocchi and Volcker, the Left’s constant carping and its own dilemmas on balancing the imperatives of governance.

Another poster branded him the “star of the new generation” who is ? according to the letters of his name ? a Reformist, Accomplisher, Honest and an Upcoming Leader.

Almost as though, along with mother Sonia Gandhi ?“Let her spirit of sacrifice and sense of party over power inspire us” ? he would pull the Congress out of troubled times.

“Aap ka netritva, hamara soubhagya (Your leadership is our good fortune),” fawned a third poster.

A former chief minister and Congress Working Committee member refused to concede the overkill was a show of sycophancy. “It is not sycophancy but a statement of fact,” he said.

“It is Rahul all the way. Karnataka will not be mentioned, our allies will not be criticised and there will be fulsome praise of the government,” he said.

At first glance, the plenary seemed to be unfolding according to the Congress brass’s script, the first part of which was penned the day the AICC was revamped and Rahul kept out of the CWC.

The twist was five of 24 posts were kept vacant, to be filled when the Congress chief wished. The expectation was Rahul would be one of them.

Although most posts in the Congress organisation are decided by merit, diligence, backroom manoeuvring and balancing regional, gender and social equations, Rahul’s anointment is likely to be different.

As per the script, a “demand” for his induction in the CWC would be drummed up at the plenary with the poster-blast as a prelude. “This will grow into a chorus,” a CWC member said.

It is, however, unlikely that any formal announcement will be made before the scheduled cabinet shuffle in March.

Congress sources said nothing in the resolutions the plenary will adopt or in the speeches that delegates will make would embarrass the party or government.