NEW DELHI, March 24 (Reuters) – Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has never been a minister in a federal or state government, has not led his Congress party to a general election victory, and quit as party chief after it was demolished in the last parliamentary polls in 2019.
Yet he remains at the centre of India’s opposition politics and the main target of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu- nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Now, his conviction and two-year jail sentence in a defamation case, and consequent dismissal from parliament on Friday, could galvanize his party and its allies to step up their opposition to the BJP government a year before the next general election is due.
The conviction on Thursday came barely two months after Gandhi, 52, concluded a 4,000-km cross-country march from India’s southern tip to Kashmir in the Himalayas in a bid to revive his party and refurbish his image in what he called a Bharat Jodo Yatra, or unify India march.
Gandhi’s jail sentence has been suspended for 30 days allowing him to appeal to a higher court but he will also not be able to contest the next general election unless he gets his conviction suspended or overturned. At the heart of his central role in opposition politics is the fact that his party has ruled India for 54 of its 75 years since independence from Britain, and his father, grandmother and great-grandfather ruled India for 37 of those 54 years. It is a fact that he has served as Prime Minister for more than that.
Congress was the largest national party in the country with a population of 1.4 billion until he was overtaken by the BJP in 2014.
The Gandhi family, which includes Rahul’s Italian-born mother, former party leader Sonia, and his sister Priyanka, are now shadows of their former selves, but still control parliament and demand fierce loyal.
When Modi and his party say dynastic politics plays no role in democracy, it is their strong pedigree and legacy that they want to attack, analysts say. Modi often refers to Rahul as a prince in his speeches. The parliament faltered in 2019, winning less than 10% of the 545 seats in the House of Commons, but nearly 20% of the votes among the opposition groups, against 38% for the BJP.
Congress is the ruling party or the largest opposition party in about half a dozen major states.
A serious politician?
Gandhi entered politics and in 2004 Uttar was elected as a member of parliament for the first time from his family district of Ameti in northern Pradesh.
He repeated that victory in 2009 and 2014, but he suffered a shock setback in 2019 when he lost his seat. However, he also applied for a seat in Kerala, where he won his return to parliament.
Gandhi’s presence in parliament was far below average. His frequent absences from the Chamber of Commerce and the country have attracted media attention, and the BJP has accused him of being an “unserious” politician.
Outside parliament, he demonstrated his family’s devotion and sacrifice to his supporters by speaking about the assassinations of his grandmother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and his father, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. It often reminded me.
He has recently been controversial for criticizing the BJP.
