FFor years, Priyanka Gandhi has been a mystery to the Indian public. Although she is considered the most charismatic member of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, which provided India with three prime ministers – more than her mother Sonia and brother Rahul – she has nevertheless chosen to remain in the background and play a supporting role.
For years, she has resisted demands from her own Congress party to take over as its leader, a party that sections consider her to be a “prime minister” because of her domineering personality. Instead, she has prioritized her personal life with her husband and two children.
Now, 52-year-old Priyanka has taken the plunge. The Congress recently announced that she would contest a by-election in Wayanad in Kerala, a safe seat vacated by Rahul. The date has not yet been announced by the Election Commission of India, but the law requires the election to be held by December.
She is almost certain to win, which would mean that all three members of the family would enter Parliament. Although the decision to run as an MP marks her debut in electoral politics, Priyanka has been politically active since the late 1990s, when she campaigned for her mother.
In 2018, the party gave her the official role of General Secretary for Eastern Uttar Pradesh.
But what caught everyone’s attention was her energetic role in the recent general elections. She emerged as a model campaigner – energetic and passionate, she drew huge crowds at the more than 100 rallies where she addressed and took sharp jabs at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
She called him a liar, a weakling who spouts empty talk, a king who lives in a palace, a boring “uncle” who preaches at weddings, and sharply criticized him for his use of indecent language that no other Prime Minister in the history of India has used.
The news of her running for MP has electrified the Congress, with some in the party seeing her as more politically astute than Rahul and capable of reviving a party that was already in decline before Modi’s victory in the 2014 general elections.
“We all saw her speak during the election campaign,” said Congressman Shashi Tharoor. “She is one of the most impressive speakers and campaigners we have and having her in the Lok Sabha (lower house) will be a big asset for the party.”
Political scientist Asim Ali wonders how Rahul and Priyanka will coexist. Could there be tension? Rivalry even? There is no question of two rival power centers, the siblings are too close for that, but what happens if Priyanka overshadows her brother? What if the media pays more attention to her than Rahul?
“I think the siblings will divide their roles, with Priyanka focusing on strengthening the party organisation while Rahul will take care of the ideology. Her big advantage is that she has no baggage of legacy, unlike Rahul who has a lot of failures behind him,” Ali said.
History suggests that nothing can separate Priyanka and Rahul. Their closeness dates back to the time when their idyllic childhood was shattered, first by the assassination of their grandmother Indira Gandhi in 1984 and later by the assassination of their beloved father Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
Unlike her brother, Priyanka once revealed her feelings about the tragedy. Speaking to NDTV in 2009, she said, “I was angry not only at my father’s killers, but at the whole world.”
Earlier, in 2008, Priyanka had gone to Vellore jail to meet Nalini Sriharan, one of her father’s killers. Sriharan later described the astonishing meeting in a book and said that Priyanka broke down. He said she asked him, “Why did you do this? My father was a good man, a gentle man, everything could have been sorted out in one conversation with him.”
Meeting Sriharan in person, she told NDTV, was “my way of making peace with the violence and loss I have experienced.”
Priyanka has never spoken about how much the loss affected Rahul, but since Sonia made it clear that her 54-year-old brother would be the political heir, Priyanka has been a staunch supporter of his long struggle to become a credible politician.
When the election results were announced on June 4 and the Congress party was jubilantly celebrating its better-than-expected result (it almost doubled its number of seats), Priyanka stayed in the wings and did not even come on stage when Rahul addressed the media, letting him savor the moment.
While almost all commentators highlighted her charisma and popularity, some also noted that she could not tolerate stupidity and bouts of domineering.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has repeatedly criticised Priyanka and the family for treating the Congress party like a private fiefdom where no one from outside can ever reach the top.
Predictably, the party reacted to the news of Priyanka’s candidacy by accusing the Congress party of engaging in “dynastic” politics. “This proves that the Congress party is not a party but a family business,” said BJP spokesman Shehzad Poonawalla.
Political analyst Desh Ratan Nigam said that although Priyanka has not been involved in active politics for some time, she has not shown any consistency so far.
“Whether she can successfully turn the fortunes of the Congress party around depends on whether she can revive the party base. Personality alone is not enough. She has to be serious and consistent, unlike her brother who says something and then disappears,” Nigam said.
The BJP will also be ready to target Priyanka’s wealthy husband, 55-year-old businessman Robert Vadra, at the first opportunity. His dealings with the avid bodybuilding fan have been accused of tax evasion and illegal land deals.
In fact, it was the subject of lively debate among the elite in Delhi’s drawing rooms about what Priyanka saw in Vadra when she married him in 1997 and considered a misalliance of sorts.
Since Vadra has an uncanny talent for making ill-advised remarks, the Congress party, knowing that he is a popular target of the BJP as a “shady damad(Son-in-law) will hope that he will be more cautious now that his wife is starting a new chapter as an MP.
