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Rahul set to carry on the Gandhi dynasty
Source: Agencies |
January 10, 2009, Saturday
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RAHUL Gandhi, the young son of the chief of India's ruling Congress party, could be the next prime minister if the party retains power in elections this year, a senior government minister was quoted as saying yesterday.
Some Congress leaders touted the 38-year-old heir to India's most famous political dynasty for the top job last year, although at the time critics saw this as jumping the gun.
Speculation is rising again as the country gears up for national elections expected by May. "The day is not far when Rahul Gandhi will be Indian Prime Minister," said Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, according to the Mail Today newspaper.
"Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister when he was 40 and his son Rahul Gandhi will follow his footsteps."
Rahul's youthfulness would stand in sharp contrast to that of 81-year-old L.K. Advani, leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, and the party says he will appeal to the army of young voters in the billion-plus nation.
The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has ruled for most of the time since independence.
Rahul's great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister in 1947, and his mother, Sonia, is the Congress party chief and considered the country's most powerful politician.
The bespectacled Rahul, a Cambridge-educated business consultant, surprised India by contesting polls in 2004 in parliamentary elections.
Gandhi is slowly asserting himself, and last year played a role in securing a landmark civilian nuclear deal with the United States.
He became a Congress Party general-secretary last year, a post seen as grooming him for a shot at the prime ministership in the future.
Some Congress leaders touted the 38-year-old heir to India's most famous political dynasty for the top job last year, although at the time critics saw this as jumping the gun.
Speculation is rising again as the country gears up for national elections expected by May. "The day is not far when Rahul Gandhi will be Indian Prime Minister," said Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, according to the Mail Today newspaper.
"Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister when he was 40 and his son Rahul Gandhi will follow his footsteps."
Rahul's youthfulness would stand in sharp contrast to that of 81-year-old L.K. Advani, leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, and the party says he will appeal to the army of young voters in the billion-plus nation.
The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has ruled for most of the time since independence.
Rahul's great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister in 1947, and his mother, Sonia, is the Congress party chief and considered the country's most powerful politician.
The bespectacled Rahul, a Cambridge-educated business consultant, surprised India by contesting polls in 2004 in parliamentary elections.
Gandhi is slowly asserting himself, and last year played a role in securing a landmark civilian nuclear deal with the United States.
He became a Congress Party general-secretary last year, a post seen as grooming him for a shot at the prime ministership in the future.
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