Quiet, young candidate keeps Gandhi name alive in politics

By The Associated Press
Gandhi party's fortunes The Congress party long reveled as the heavyweight of Indian politics, governing the vast nation for decades. But it hasn't controlled the national government since 1996, and it's given little chance of regaining power in parliamentary elections that begin April 20.
When Congress unexpectedly lost three state elections late last year, even supporters acknowledged the party was in trouble. It held only 109 seats in the 545-member lower house when national elections were called in February.
Congress was led by Mohandas Gandhi, the father of India's nonviolent independence movement. And it produced modern India's two famous leaders Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first prime minister after independence from Britain, and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, his daughter.
In the political shade for more than a decade, India's equivalent of the Kennedys hope a new generation will return them to the glory days that saw three family members serve as prime minister.
"It's an emotional moment for me," Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi said recently when she accompanied her son, Rahul, to file nomination papers for the Parliament seat once held by his late father, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
"I came here with my husband. Today, I've come here with my son," she said.
Rahul Gandhi, 34, is expected to easily win the seat of Amethi, the family's stronghold in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state. Normally an intensely private man, he has been cajoled to join the Congress party's effort to regain the power it lost in 1996 after nearly four decades at the top.
The party previously had hoped Sonia Gandhi would fill that role. She also reluctantly entered politics, in 1998, seven years after her husband's assassination, but she has been plagued by her Italian birth and lack of charisma.
Rajiv was himself the son of a prime minister, Indira Gandhi, the iron woman of Indian politics who was assassinated in 1984. She, in turn, was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, who governed for 17 years after India's independence from Britain.
Despite the family's legacy, political analysts are skeptical the quiet Rahul will ever make any great waves. It is Rahul's 33-year-old sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has captured the pundits' imagination. With an outgoing nature and snappy sound bites, she has a commanding presence and face that reminds many of her grandmother Indira.
So far, the stay-at-home mom is coy about her intentions, but many Indians believe the pull of family will eventually draw her into the political fray.
Not all Gandhis have remained loyal to Congress. Varun Gandhi, a 23-year-old grandson of Indira Gandhi, earlier this year joined the governing Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
His mother, Maneka Gandhi, was the wife of Indira's younger son, Sanjay, who died in a stunt-plane crash