INDIA: Mr Rahul Gandhi, the scion of India's Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, will contest the upcoming parliamentary elections to bolster the flagging confidence of the main Opposition Congress Party, a senior party member declared at the weekend.
The 34-year-old computer specialist, who has lived a major portion of his adult life abroad, mostly in the US and Britain, will contest from the family borough of Amethi in northern Uttar Pradesh state that is presently represented by his mother Sonia who heads the Congress Party.
Earlier, Rahul's father, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who was assassinated whilst campaigning ahead of general elections in 1991, was the MP from Amethi.
Rahul's great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru was independent India's first prime minister.
His grandmother, Indira Gandhi, became prime minister in 1966 and ruled with only a three-year break until she was assassinated by her bodyguards in 1984. She was succeeded by her son, Rajiv.
"The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty have for generations treated the Congress Party as their personal fiefdom," a former independent MP declared. With Rahul fighting the elections from a safe seat nothing seems to have changed, he added declining to be named.
Ms Sonia Gandhi, the 57-year-old Italian-born Opposition leader, will shift her constituency to neighbouring Rae Bareilly, another traditional family seat which mother-in-law Indira represented for several years.
According to recent opinion polls, the 118-year-old Congress Party is trailing behind the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance and insiders believe that fielding Nehru-Gandhi family members in the elections that begin on April 20th and end three weeks later, are likely to improve its performance at the hustings.
Several Congress Party publicity films are projecting Rahul as his father's "double" believing that such a comparison was enough for him to be a star campaigner and to register a landslide victory.
Congress leaders are also keen on fielding Rahul's older sister, Ms Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, but said no decision had yet been taken on her participation. "We will make an announcement [about Ms Vadra\] at an appropriate time," Congress media secretary Mr Tom Vadakkan said.
The beleaguered Congress Party, riven by internecine rivalry and handicapped by the absence of an issue-based campaign, is keen on Ms Vadra campaigning for them. Party loyalists feel that her resemblance in looks and behaviour to her grandmother Indira might just translate into political profit.
Meanwhile, Rahul's cousin Mr Varun Gandhi, son of Rajiv Gandhi's younger, wayward brother Sanjay who predeceased his sibling, has also entered politics by joining the BJP at an elaborate "coming out" ceremony recently.
But Mr Varun Gandhi (24), whose environmentalist mother Ms Maneka Gandhi was forced out of the family house by Indira a few years after her husband Sanjay died in an aircraft accident, cannot participate in the elections, as he is underage by a year. He is, however, confining himself to campaigning for the BJP and has been deprecating about the foreign origins of aunt Sonia who became an Indian citizen only after her husband became prime minister in 1985. The two Gandhi widows and their children are not close.
India's political parties are working overtime to stitch up alliances and recruit glamourous film stars in order to woo over 650 million eligible voters.