RAHUL GANDHI
Scion of the family that dominated Indian politics for nearly seven decades, 53-year-old Rahul Gandhi has struggled to shed the image of a privileged dynasty.
The Congress Party, which has traditionally claimed to represent all faiths in constitutionally secular India, was crushed twice under his stewardship by Modi’s BJP.
Congress, the only opposition party with a pan-India presence, won just 52 lower house seats in the 2019 polls – still the second biggest party, but with less than 10 per cent of the chamber.
The BJP even defeated Gandhi in his traditional family constituency.
The four-term lawmaker has been hamstrung by several criminal cases lodged against him by BJP members, including a defamation conviction that saw him briefly disqualified from parliament last year.
After a string of public-speaking gaffes critical media lampooned him as “pappu”, or witless, while a leaked US diplomatic cable once dubbed the Cambridge-educated lawmaker an “empty suit”.
But Gandhi knows that defeating the BJP requires the coalition to stand together.
He has therefore been careful not to alienate allies by claiming he would take the post of prime minister – if they win.
