Rahul Gandhi has all the right qualities to make an "excellent" prime minister, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said Sunday, even as he emphasized that the issue of PM candidate is likely to be decided after the 2019 polls "collectively" by the party and its allies.

Tharoor also said the recent assembly elections have made it clear that the Congress remains the only alternative political party with a pan-India presence, and therefore, would be the "natural fulcrum" for any national alliance.

"Rahul Gandhi is our leader, which means that if Congress gets a majority, he will be PM. If Congress is in a coalition government, obviously wider discussions will be held with other coalition partners to arrive at a consensus candidate," he told PTI in an interview.

Tharoor said that any decision on the PM candidate put forward by the Congress and its allies will take place through established processes and conventions which will have to be representative of the interests of the larger coalition.

It will be a "collective decision" and, as is usually the case, this is only likely to be discussed after the election results, he said.

"At a personal level, having had several interactions and discussions in close quarters with the Congress president, to my mind it is evidently clear that Rahul Ji has all the right qualities to make an excellent prime minister for the country," Tharoor said when asked about Gandhi seemingly emerging as the opposition's PM face despite them saying that a decision on it will be taken after polls.