NEW DELHI: He has never held public office, once likened power to “poison”, and saw his politician father and grandmother assassinated. Now Rahul Gandhi is set to take over as leader of the party that has ruled India for much of its history.
The 47-year-old’s nomination as president of the Congress party follows years of speculation that he would succeed his mother in the role he has been prepared for since birth.
On Monday, party workers cheered as senior Congress leader Mullappally Ramachandran announced that Rahul, who stood for election unopposed, would be the next president of the party his family has led for generations.
“I hereby declare Shri Rahul Gandhi elected as the President of the Indian National Congress,” he told reporters, calling it “a historic occasion”.
He will officially take over as Congress president on Saturday at a ceremony in New Delhi.
The son, grandson and great-grandson of prime ministers, Rahul has carried the burden of expectation since his father Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991.
His reputation as a reluctant leader and his lacklustre performance in the 2014 general election campaign, which he fronted, had cast doubt over his suitability for the role.
But analysts say the Gandhi family’s tight grip on the party leadership — dating back to India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru — made his ascension almost inevitable.
His mother Sonia has led the party for 19 years and has worked tirelessly to ensure her son’s eventual succession.
But he faces an immense battle to revive the ailing centre-left party ahead of the next national elections due in 2019.
A Financial Times editorial last month called Rahul an “amiable and pleasant fellow who lacks the will to win power or the killer instinct necessary for the cut and thrust of political battle in India”.
Just 58 per cent of Indians view him positively, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center earlier this year that put Prime Minister Narendra Modi 30 points ahead of him in the popularity stakes.