File photo of Rahul Gandhi

Congressman Beni Prasad Verma, known for his controversial comments, has predicted that Rahul Gandhi will hoist the national flag at Delhi's Red Fort on Independence Day next year as Prime Minister.Mr Verma said, while taking yet another swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, that, "Modi will get tired making speeches from fake Red Forts. Then, Rahul will hoist the flag on August 15, 2014."The Congress has not officially projected Mr Gandhi, who is the party's number 2, as its presumptive prime minister for the general elections due by May. Senior party men have often hinted that the 43-year-old is the natural choice for the top job if the Congress gets a third straight mandate to rule, while also insisting that the party does not announce a prime ministerial candidate before elections.But Mr Verma, who is the Union Steel Minister, will not resort to circumspection. "Our Prime Minister himself has said that Rahul Gandhi is the next prime minister," he said.He had last year declared that the 2014 general elections would be a Rahul Gandhi vs Narendra Modi contest, though the Congress has repeatedly made it clear that it finds such a comparison odious.Earlier this year, Mr Verma had earned a reprimand from his party and was warned that "leaders must watch their language," after he attacked, for the umpteenth time, his former boss Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, who provides crucial external support to the Congress-led UPA at the Centre.

Mr Verma belongs to Uttar Pradesh, which Mr Yadav's party rules. He was given an important role in Congress strategy by Rahul Gandhi for the UP elections in 2012.The minister has recently made several attacks on Mr Modi and declared last month that he would thwart the BJP leader's attempts to register a big win in UP in the general elections. "I am enough to face BJP's PM-in-waiting. The blessings of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are also with me," he had said.