Gandhi (centre) flanked by Other Backward Class leader Alpesh Thakor (right) and president of the Gujarat Congress Comittee Bharat Sinh Solanki (left) pose for a picture during the ‘Navsarjan Gujarat Janadesh’ rally. — AFP photo
NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi, the scion of India’s most fabled political dynasty, will within weeks be crowned leader of the Congress party, handing him a freer rein to prove if he can mount a credible challenge to the dominance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The great-grandson of India’s founding prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, has struggled to convince voters — and many in his party — that he is leadership material, especially after a drubbing in the 2014 general election.
Modi’s depiction of the 47-year-old as an undeserving ‘prince’ has helped sideline Gandhi since the last national vote, during which time Congress has suffered some of its worst ever local election results.
But this year the economy has stumbled, and Congress politicians hope a round of state elections, beginning in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, offer them — and their leader — a shot at revival ahead of the next national poll in 2019.
Gandhi will soon take over as Congress president from his 70-year-old mother, Sonia Gandhi, a symbolic promotion that three Congress officials said they hoped would free his hand to shift the narrative from a clash of personalities — which Modi has so far resoundingly won — to a debate about policies.
“You will see many changes and every change will be a reaffirmation of what Congress’s core beliefs are,” said party MP and senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, who works closely with Rahul Gandhi.
“The right time has come to strike a chord with the masses against Modi’s governance style, and we will not miss it.” — AFP