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POLITICAL PRINCE: Mr Gandhi with his mother Sonia, who leads India's ruling Congress party. -- PHOTO: AFP
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NEW DELHI - A QUARTER of a century after his late father entered politics to 'help mummy', Mr Rahul Gandhi was appointed a general secretary of the ruling Congress party led by his mother, Mrs Sonia Gandhi.
The first-time MP, who represents his assassinated father's constituency of Amethi in Parliament, will take charge of the party's student and youth wings, a Congress announcement said.
Mr Gandhi is 37, youthful by the standards of Indian politics.
Yesterday's appointment ends months of speculation about his political career, including whether he has the appetite for a larger role on the national stage.
It also raises fresh speculation that elections could come ahead of their May 2009 deadline.
The Left parties which give the Congress-led government critical parliamentary backing have threatened to withdraw support if India goes ahead with its nuclear deal with the United States in its current form.
The Marxists, the biggest party in the group, has asked for a six-month freeze on discussions to seal the deal, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government has shown no signs it is willing to yield to the demand.
That could bring on early elections, and the talk is that Congress, if it succeeds in retaining power, may ask Dr Singh to step down to make way for a younger man.
The Italian-born Mrs Gandhi yesterday also named 11 other general secretaries, while including her son in the powerful Congress Working Committee that decides all organisational matters.
The news was greeted with the beating of drums and cymbals outside the party headquarters in New Delhi.
Mr Gandhi, who led the party's campaign in the state elections earlier this year to fill the Uttar Pradesh state assembly, will almost certainly be projected as the future face of the party.
Although the crowds that showed up to greet him on the campaign trail did not translate into votes for Congress, the party is only likely to gain from projecting him as its leader-in-waiting.
India has one of the most youthful population profiles in Asia. On the other hand, the potential prime ministerial candidates from the Bharatya Janata Party, the No.1 opposition group, are nudging 80.
If he does rise to national leadership some day, Mr Gandhi would be a fourth-generation prime minister from his family.
His father Rajiv, grandmother Indira Gandhi and great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru were all prime ministers of India and leaders of Congress, the party of independence.
Although Mr Rahul Gandhi privately says his decision to enter politics was made on the day his father was killed by a Sri Lankan Tamil suicide bomber in 1991, he has taken his time to accept a party post. He once said he would rather learn politics 'brick by brick'.
His father Rajiv was also a reluctant entrant into politics, preferring the life of an airline pilot until his politician brother's death in an air crash in 1980.
He then took his brother's seat in a by-election in 1981 and, like his son now, was inducted a while later as a party general secretary.
velloor@sph.com.sg
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