NEW DELHI: A day after his return from a two-month long sabbatical, Rahul Gandhi Friday skipped a key party meeting.

His decision has given fresh rise to speculation whether the Congress party vice president is ready to take over the mantle of the party amid suggestions he is set to replace mother Sonia Gandhi as the national president of the party soon.

The party has organised a farmers rally on Sunday in a bid to relaunch Gandhi in his new avatar as a proactive and aggressive leader ready to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by shedding his image of being a reluctant and reticent politician.

The Sunday rally being held at central Delhi’s Ramlila Ground is expected to be a showcase event of the party that was trounced badly in the May general elections, followed by its embarrassing defeats in five states.

Rahul Gandhi along with his mother Sonia are billed as star speakers at the rally which is aimed at getting into the good books of farmers by opposing the Narendra Modi government’s Land Acquisition Bill and painting the BJP as pro-rich and anti-farmer.

Rahul Gandhi was supposed to interact with delegations of farmers coming from various corners of the country Friday to acquaint himself with the problem being faced by farmers who have been hit hard by the recent unseasonal rains in many states.

An embarrassed Congress party, which is used to stoutly defending Gandhi, took a while to come up with a plausible answer for Gandhi skipping Friday’s meeting, saying it has been deferred till Saturday in order to give the visiting farmers adequate time to reach Delhi.

“We wanted to give enough travel time to farmers coming from far and wide … About half a dozen groups of farmers from across India will meet Rahul Gandhi tomorrow (Saturday) at his residence,” Randeep Surjewala, who was recently promoted to head the party’s communications department, said.

Meanwhile, questions are still being raised on why Gandhi opted to drive down straight from New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport to his 12 Tughlaq Lane bungalow instead of his mother’s 10 Janpath bungalow where he normally lives. He uses Tughlaq Lane bungalow as his office.

His mother Sonia and sister Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra met him there upon his return on Thursday and later Gandhi went to his mother’s residence to have lunch.

Although the Congress party had said that Gandhi had gone to an unknown destination on an introspection mission, the party leaked information Thursday that he had gone to Yangon in Myanmar and stayed at a famous meditation retreat, which is yet to be officially confirmed.

There were suggestions he had left the country at a crucial time when his leadership was required in Parliament during the key budget session after he was upset with his mother for her reluctance to sack the coterie around her and formally handover reigns of the party to him.

The party had to repeatedly postpone the planned farmers rally while the Modi government got the land bill passed by the Lok Sabha and is likely to put up for approval from Rajya Sabha which is scheduled to start a new session from April 23 as Rahul Gandhi continued to extend what the party termed as the leave of absence.