Congress President Sonia Gandhi [Images] today reprimanded party leader and former Chattisgarh chief Minister Ajit Jogi for initiating a campaign urging her to take over as prime minister and appoint her son Rahul as the party general secretary.

Sonia has dismissed rumours that she is going to replace Dr Manmohan Singh [Images] as the prime minister of India.

Jogi had initiated the campaign soon after Sonia Gandhi's massive win in the Rae Bareli by-election.

She said that the victory of DMK and its allies is a victory of democracy. "We are going to form government in Assam. But we suffered in Kerala [Images] and West Bengal. But this is what happens in democracy. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose," she said.

"...this is not the first time that the people have given you the mandate to lead them. They have done so repeatedly. Madam, we most respectfully beg you to respect the mandate and become our prime minister," party MPs Ajit Jogi, Jivabhai Patel and 23 others said in a joint letter.

The MPs, most of who belong to scheduled castes, tribes and depressed classes, termed Gandhi's Rae Bareli victory as "a categorical assertion of the hopes and aspirations of the entire nation."

The petition sparked off intense speculation in political circles in New Delhi.

But according to a CWC source, Sonia Gandhi not only categorically rejected the demand, she also reprimanded Jogi for having started it.