According to sources, Rahul's office has asked for intelligence reports on the four student leaders he has short-listed after holding more than nine months' rigorous screening followed by a one-to-one interview held last month.

Of the 12 NSUI leaders, who were called to Delhi and assessed on the basis of several rounds of group discussions and one-to-one interviews by Rahul, four — Shahnawaz Sheikh (Ahmedabad), Vinay Tomar (Ahmedabad), Devsinh Modhvadia (Porbandar) and Hardit Trivedi (Ahmedabad) — have been short-listed.

The quartet was selected after final interviews taken by the panel consisting Rahul, NSUI national president I B Eden and AICC secretary Jitender Singh, on January 13 this year. The interviews were held at Rahul's residence on the Tuglak Road in New Delhi.

The process of picking up of the new state NSUI president had started around March last year, with as many as 200 candidates applying for the post. Only 12 of these qualified for the final interview with Rahul, sources said.

The 12 were made to debate and answer questions on how they will strengthen the organisation if appointed and who their idols were in politics. During one-to-one interviews, Rahul was reportedly keen to have their take on Congress leaders (other than those of the Nehru family, of course).

“Rahulji also wanted to know if we would allow and encourage student leaders from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parisad (ABVP) to join NSUI if they agreed with the Congress ideology,” said one of the four short-listed aspirants.

Sources said Rahul was particular that the one he chooses to head NSUI in Gujarat should have a clean police record, with no taints or criminal cases against him.