Scion of India's political dynasty is Congress Party's new vice-president

Rahul Gandhi is popular, but party insiders say his views on important issues such as the economy and foreign affairs are a mystery

Rahul Gandhi, the scion of India’s Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, this week embraced his role as a leading contender for India’s premiership next year by formally assuming the number two slot in the ruling Congress Party after his mother, Sonia.

The 42-year-old’s elevation to the vice-presidency of the Congress highlights its reliance on the Gandhi family name to secure power as it readies for 10 crucial state assembly polls this year followed by general elections in early 2014.

Party rule

With a Nehru or Gandhi as its head, the Congress Party has ruled India for almost half a century since independence from colonial rule 66 years ago.

Rahul Gandhi’s father Rajiv followed his mother, Indira, as India’s prime minister in 1985 who in turn succeeded her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, in the same job in 1966.

Jawaharlal’s father, Motilal, who launched the Nehru dynasty at the turn of the 20th century, was a prominent barrister, Congress Party leader and freedom fighter.

And, more recently, Rahul’s Italian-born mother, Sonia, joined as Congress head in 1998 seven years after her husband Rajiv was assassinated by Sri Lankan Tamil insurgents.

She led the floundering party to two electoral victories in 2004 and again, five years later.

“I will fight for the people of India with everything I have,” the Cambridge and Harvard-educated Gandhi promised party members over the weekend at a Congress conclave in Jaipur, the popular tourist town 260km west of New Delhi.

“The Congress Party is now my life,” he told a crowd of hysterical supporters, including mother as well as prime minister Manmohan Singh and almost his entire cabinet.

All see the Gandhi dynasty as the solitary force that unites India’s oldest political party and guarantees its electoral clout.

‘India’s Obama’

Rahul Gandhi’s speech, laced liberally with tragic anecdotes that befell his family – both his grandmother and father were assassinated – was widely praised as “inspirational” by party members, some of whom even called him “India’s Obama”.

But the reticent leader, who recently led two disastrous but critical provincial electoral campaigns, has rarely been seen or heard in the parliament to which he was twice elected from the safe Gandhi family borough of Amethi in northern Uttar Pradesh state, in 2004 and 2009.

His occasional overnight trips to stay with low-caste families and even rarer journeys on Delhi’s metro system were eagerly covered by India’s media equally fascinated by the young Gandhi.

However, his refusal until this week to assume greater executive and political responsibility and his aloof style has raised consistent questions about his appetite to be prime minister. A leaked US diplomatic cable from the ambassador in Delhi in 2011 referred to Rahul as one “widely viewed as an empty suit”.

Even Congress Party insiders maintain that his views on important economic, political, diplomatic, national security and other important social, healthcare and governance matters remain a mystery.

Unanimous

But the party is nonetheless enthusiastic about his appointment, with a senior cabinet member saying he was the party’s unanimous choice as its prime ministerial candidate in the forthcoming elections.

“It is not like there are [other] names floating around. There is only one single name of Rahul Gandhi,” said parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath, who is widely viewed as a leading Congress power broker.

Earlier in 2011 PM Singh, who owes his job to Rahul’s mother, declared his willingness to step down in the young Gandhi’s favour.

“The general proposition that younger people should take over is the right sentiment,” Singh said, eager not to displease the Gandhi family.