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Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, a prominent opposition leader in Indian politics, was disqualified from parliament on 24 March 2023. Gandhi's disqualification came after a court in Gujarat found him guilty in a 2019 defamation case. Gandhi, 52, was found guilty in a case related to his speech ahead of the 2019 general elections in which he asked why “all thieves have Modi as [their] common surname”. Gandhi, 52, was granted bail and his jail sentence has been suspended for 30 days allowing him to appeal to a higher court. Following his disqualification, the Congress leader will not be able to contest elections for eight years. This comes as general elections will take place in India in 2024. The Congress said that it would legally and politically challenge Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from the Lok Sabha.

Gandhi is the leading face of Congress, once the dominant force of Indian politics, with a proud role in ending British colonial rule, but now a shadow of its former self. He is the scion of India’s most famous political dynasty and the son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, beginning with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru. But he had struggled to challenge the electoral juggernaut of Modi and its nationalist appeals to the country’s Hindu majority.

India's political matriarch told her struggling party that she would not nominate her son for the prime minister post in the upcoming elections. Sonia Gandhi said January 17, 2014 at a meeting of the ruling Congress Party that an agreement had been reached the day before that her son Rahul would not be the party's choice for prime minister. She said the "decision is final." Congress is lagging well behind the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in opinion polls, with voters turned off by an economic slowdown and a string of corruption scandals. Congress' expected defeat will be so comprehensive that the Gandhi family fears it could kill off Rahul's nascent political career. His father, grandmother and great-grandfather were all prime ministers of India, but Gandhi has shunned several invitations to join the government.

Rahul Gandhi, Congress Party General Secretary and scion of India's most famous political dynasty, is the son of Rajiv Gandhi (former Prime Minister of India who was assassinated by Sri Lankan terrorists on May 21, 1991) and Sonia Gandhi (the current chairperson of United Progressive Alliance (UPA)). The Indian National Congress has run India's government for most of the years since 1947, with Rahul's father, grandmother and great-grandfather all serving as prime ministers. Born on 19 June 1970, Rahul Gandhi is a Member of Parliament wherein he represents the Amethi constituency from Uttar Pradesh. Rahul Gandhi belongs to the Nehru family and is the grandson of Indira Gandhi [who was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984] and great-grandson of Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister [who suffered a stroke and died in office in May 1964].

He attended Modern School, New Delhi before entering the The Doon School. Starting university at Harvard, he got his B.A. from Rollins College, Florida in 1994 due to interruptions in his studies caused by security concerns after his father's assassination. He received an M.Phil. in Development Studies in 1995 from Trinity College, Cambridge. Rahul Gandhi, after graduating worked with management guru, Michael Porter's Management consulting firm, Monitor Group for three years. He returned to India in late 2002.

Rahul Gandhi appeared with his mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi at public events and Congress meetings. He also traveled to Pakistan on a goodwill visit to watch the first cricket series between the countries in 14 years in a One Day International with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. As a matured politician he formulates his tactics very carefully. In March 2004, he announced his entry into politics by contesting the May 2004 elections from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha. In his first interview with media, he condemned "divisive" politics in India, saying that he would try to reduce caste and religious tensions. His candidacy was greeted with excitement by locals, who had a long standing affinity with the family's presence in the area.

He won with a landslide majority, retaining the family stronghold with a margin of over 100,000 as the Congress unexpectedly defeated the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. His campaign was directed by his younger sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Rahul's Lok Sabha win from the Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh generated buzz among the political chattering classes, many of whom regarded his sister Priyanka as being the more charismatic and likely to succeed.

In January 2006, at a convention of the Indian National Congress in Hyderabad, thousands of party members asked for Gandhi to take a more prominent leadership role in the party and demanded that he address the delegates. He said "I appreciate and I am grateful for your feelings and support. I assure you I will not let you down", but asked for patience and declined to immediately seek a high profile role. Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra managed their mother's election campaign in Raebareli in 2006, which was won easily with a margin greater than 400,000 votes.

He was a prominent figure in a high profile Congress campaign for the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Rahul stepped into the national spotlight as a Congress head campaigner for the state assembly election in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India's largest state. Despite Rahul's efforts to revive Congress units in UP, the party suffered a crippling loss to the caste-based Bahujan Samaj Party winning only 22 out of 402 seats. In the aftermath of the state elections, Rahul faced mounting criticism with political opposition and local media characterizing him as a dilettante who was not "ready" for prime time politics. An influential group of Congress veterans, however, maintained the UP election was a "formative" experience that better prepared Rahul to take a more active role in the organization.

On 24 September 2007, at the age of 37, Rahul Gandhi was appointed a General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee in a reshuffle of the party secretariat. In the same reshuffle, he was also given charge of the Youth Congress [IYC] and the National Students Union of India [NSUI], further fueling wide-spread speculation that Sonia Gandhi was grooming her son for the prime minister's seat.

To rejuvenate the left-leaning party ahead, he set a goal that 30 percent of parliamentary candidates for 2009 elections should be 40-years old or younger. Over a year before polls, Rahul and his Youth Congress cohorts launched the "talent show" initiative to identify up-and-coming leaders. In the process, the team short-listed and interviewed 18 to 40-year old candidates for Youth Congress or NSUI leadership positions.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, he retained his Amethi constutuency by a victory margin of over 333,000 votes. Rahul Gandhi also played a pivatol role in reviving Congress in U.P during this election by winning 21 out of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats. He spoke at 125 rallies across the country in six weeks. Rahul Gandhi, at present concentrates mainly on constituency issues and the politics of Uttar Pradesh.

The 2009 Indian parliamentary election was largely seen as a "coming-of-age" for 39-year old Congress Party General Secretary, Rahul Gandhi. Throughout the campaign, media cast a spotlight on Rahul's every move -- from visiting almost every state to address public rallies, to gambling on Congress's "going it alone" in the Hindi heartland, to fielding a select group of youngsters for political office. As played in the media, Rahul and his cohort of fresh-faced MPs represented the future of Indian politics, embodying the "hopes and aspirations" of a very young India where 65 percent of the population is under the age of 35.

Rahul Gandhi emerged from 2009 elections a political star. He was the Congress Party's lead campaigner on the election trail -- logging in over 54,000 miles, visiting almost every state and addressing more public rallies than other Congress bigwigs including his mother and Congress President, Sonia Gandhi. Rahul's strategy to "go it alone" in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar has been credited by analysts as one of the factors that contributed to the Congress' election sweep.

Gandhi reached out to apolitical youth, students, entrepreneurs, farmers, weavers, and fishermen in several meetings, encouraging them to "join active politics.... join the Congress" and "work . . . to achieve a superpower India." He expounded on this theme at Chennai's prestigious Anna University, calling on youth to bridge the "two Indias," one full of opportunities and the other lacking even basic amenities.

Gandhi's focus would be on party building efforts at the local level. He was busy trying to recruit more appealing candidates to run for Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) positions nationwide. Gandhi's focus was on finding younger party members who would not carry some of the baggage of older Congress candidates. He aimed at rebuilding party structures in small towns and rural areas to attract voters and believed the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was vulnerable there. Many educated, upper middle class urban Indians dismiss politics as a dirty business, but there is a massive wave of interest in politics and service by younger Indians in small towns and rural areas.

Gandhi is a practiced politician who knows how to get his message across and is comfortable with the nuts and bolts of party organization and vote counting. He is precise and articulate and demonstrates a mastery that belies the image some have of Gandhi as a dilettante. Rahul underwent a transformation in 2012 from a harsh and aggressive campaigner on the poll trail in Uttar Pradesh to a subtle crusader steering clear of overtly harsh jibes while wooing voters in Gujarat. Narendra Modi, Gujarat's firebrand chief minister, is perhaps the only contender with the track record and name recognition to challenge Rahul Gandhi in 2014.

Rahul Gandhi is India's most eligible bachelor, if not its most incorrigible-the second honour safely belongs to serial toxic boyfriend Salman Khan. At 40, his father Rajiv Gandhi was married to Sonia Maino and had two children. In life, as in politics, Rahul is still an apprentice. The marriage question has enormous political implications in a party so obviously dependent on dynasty. Rahul Gandhi has kept media reporting totally away from his personal life.