It wasn't so much an if, but a when, and it happened on Saturday. Rahul Gandhi was elevated to number two position in the party at the Chintan Shivir, and is now the Congress vice president.

The new headquarters for Rahul will be at 15 Gurudwara Rekhabganj Road, which incidentally is also the war room for the Congress ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Rahul will be a regular to this bungalow in the days to come and will spend at least two to three hours every day here to strategise for the campaigns ahead. So far, he has been meeting senior union ministers and his presence obviously means that the security  has been upped.

The party vice president has indicated that he does not want to have a political secretary at this juncture. In the days to come however Rahul will take inputs from four or five confidantes like Jairam Ramesh, Sachin Pilot, Jiten Prasada
and Deepender Singh Hooda.

Insiders at 24 Akbar Road say that they are happy that the role of occupants of  Raisina Hills could now be on the decline.