NEW DELHI: Indian political boss Sonia Gandhi batted away pleas Friday to name her son as prime ministerial candidate for the ruling Congress party in upcoming elections, which she called a battle to save the nation’s secular identity.

A day after she rejected moves within Congress to declare Rahul Gandhi as its choice for premier at polls due by May, the Italian-born party president faced frustrated followers at a mass meeting in the capital.

“We took a decision on Rahul yesterday and that decision is final,” she told a rowdy crowd ahead of her speech which was interrupted several times with shouts of “Rahul for PM!”

Rahul, a 43-year-old bachelor whose appetite for the top job is a matter of open speculation, had to take to the stage afterwards to ask hundreds of Congress workers to wait for his address later in the day.

Pollsters predict a defeat for Congress after two terms in power, with voters troubled by high inflation, slowing economic growth which has hit the job market and a series of corruption scandals.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has named fiery hardliner Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate and the BJP campaign has been centred around him and his 13 years in charge of western Gujarat state.

But Modi, a pro-business reformer with a reputation for running a relatively clean administration, is also known for his Hindu nationalist leanings and is accused by critics of turning a blind eye to savage anti-Muslim riots in his state in 2002.

A survey last week said that only 14 percent of voters believe Rahul Gandhi would make the best prime minister while 58 percent opted for Modi.

Sonia said the election would be “a battle between competing ideologies, conflicting views of the history and a different vision for the future... it will be a battle for India.”

Rahul also sought to stress the idea of Congress, born out of India’s struggle for independence from British rule, as the protector of India’s unity and religious and cultural diversity.

“The opposition said they want an India without Congress, but they don’t know India’s history,” he said.