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| Rahul Gandhi is clearly the most important in the party after Sonia |
NEW DELHI - The decision by an ailing Sonia Gandhi to ask her son Rahul to help steer India’s ruling party in her absence could fast-track his long-anticipated succession to power, analysts say.
The scion of India’s Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty was named Thursday to a four-member panel tasked with running the party’s daily affairs while his mother recovers from surgery for an undisclosed medical condition.
Although long billed as a premier-in-waiting, Rahul, 41, has hitherto shunned high-profile cabinet berths in favour of grassroots activism and building up the party’s youth wing.
But his nomination to the temporary panel — despite not even being in the country — coupled with uncertainty over the seriousness of Sonia’s condition has led many to believe his rise to the top has now begun in earnest.
‘The whole plan of Sonia has always been that the sceptre must be handed to the son,’ political analyst Inder Malhotra told AFP. ‘This regency could well be the beginning of transition.’
Rahul steps into the fray as the Congress party battles its gravest crisis since taking power in 2004 after a string of corruption scandals and soaring inflation. Read More...
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