India's Congress Party facing leadership crisis over Rahul Gandhi's reluctance His refusal to raise his profile as a Congress leader is causing growing anxiety within the party as Mr Singh's prime ministership draws towards its end and questions persist over Sonia Gandhi's health. Mrs Gandhi is said by senior Congress sources to have cancer and regularly visits New York for treatment. Congress concerns have been heightened by a series of corruption scandals that have weakened the government and the resignation last week of a key coalition partner in protest over decisions to allow Western supermarkets to enter India and cut fuel subsidies. These anxieties have intensified pressure on Mr Gandhi to "step up" by taking over more of his mother's duties as party leader or accepting a cabinet position to raise his profile in the run-up to the next election. According to sources in the family circle, Mr Gandhi has said his priority is to revive the Congress Party organisation and its electoral prospects following a series of state election defeats. But he appears to be "in a funk," "dispirited" and "at a loss" over how to lead the party out of its current woes, sources close to the family said. He doesn't want a cabinet position because he doesn't want to be accountable for anything. He feels he should have power without getting involved in decision making. The problem is he is not a fighter like his grandmother. He keeps telling people Congress is going to lose the next election and asking what he should do," said one family source. Another, who believes cabinet experience would help him improve his leadership qualities, voiced his frustration. Rahul has to decide. He can take over the party any time he wants to. He could have taken over in 2009, but he feels the party is more important (than him) and that's his focus. He's not coming into the cabinet and who can pressure him? He should have been in the cabinet in 2004. He's the grandson of Nehru, good-looking, English speaking. He would be a good minister, but with him it's 'party, party, party," he said. The prime minister's communications adviser Pankaj Pachauri confirmed Mr Gandhi had declined an open invitation from Mr Singh to become a senior minister. He has invited Rahul Gandhi to join the cabinet and the decision has been left to Mr Gandhi. He has so far declined," he said. Prabhu Chawla, editorial director of the New Indian Express and one of India's leading political commentators, said Mr Gandhi's younger supporters expect Congress to lose the next election and for him to take over as leader following that defeat. "Congress without a Gandhi is like a company without shareholders," he said. But some influential figures in the ruling family's circle believe by then he may no longer be the Congress Party's favourite Gandhi. One said his leadership of the party's campaign in this year's humiliating Uttar Pradesh state election and a poor showing in Bihar in 2010 had stirred support for his sister Priyanka to take over the mantle. Senior party figures believe she has their grandmother Indira Gandhi's charisma and is expected to stand in her mother's Rae Bareilly constituency at the next election. "If something happens to Sonia, the party will go for Priyanka," one influential Congress source said.