NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – After years in the shadows as a reluctant heir-apparent, India’s Rahul Gandhi is set to lead the ruling Congress party’s campaign in a general election it has only a slim chance of winning.
Congress, in power for the last decade, is struggling in opinion polls ahead of elections due by May, with a string of corruption scandals and a reputation for poor governance engulfing its administration.
A resurgent Hindu nationalist opposition party and a new anti-corruption movement appear to have far more pulling power among the voters. “The Congress party president declared that the next election campaign will be led by Rahul Gandhi,” senior party leader Janardan Dwidedi said yesterday after meeting Sonia Gandhi, Rahul’s mother, party head and one of India’s most powerful figures. Congress delegates will formally choose the 43-year-old heir of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty as campaign leader, in the hope that the charisma of the family can still bring in votes. His mother Sonia is widely expected to remain party chief.
He will not be prime ministerial candidate, in line with his party’s tradition of naming leaders only after poll victories. Congress also hopes this will avoid a direct presidential-style campaign against the charismatic Hindu nationalist opposition leader Narendra Modi.
Gandhi has launched moves to clean up the 128-year-old Congress party and stem its slide, including asking for the right to name at least 100 of the party candidates to the 543-member parliament as a way to ditch many of the old guard.
“Changes… will be substantial,” Sachin Pilot, corporate affairs minister and a star in Gandhi’s team, told Reuters.
Critics say Gandhi depends on his family name for power, is a lightweight and has barely registered his presence in parliament despite being a member for the last decade.
“It is only in a personality and family-dominated set-up like the Congress that he can be nominated as the unquestioned supremo,” said Arun Jaitley, a senior leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
FAMILY DESTINY
The Nehru-Gandhi family has dominated politics in the world’s biggest democracy ever since his great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru delivered his stirring “tryst with destiny” speech on the eve of independence from Britain in 1947.
