The Great Debate (India)

Rahul Gandhi next Congress chief?

Rahul Gandhi is set to become the next Congress party chief within a few weeks, The Economic Times reported on Saturday. The report said several party leaders, including a cabinet minister, had confirmed the handover is likely in “four to eight weeks”.

After Rahul takes over, Sonia Gandhi will restrict her role to giving broad directions to the party and government, the report added.

The Nehru-Gandhi family political dynasty has no other equivalent in the world, combining the birthright of royalty with the tragic glamour of the Kennedy clan. A member of the family has been in charge of India for more than two-thirds of the period since independence from Britain in 1947.

But Rahul Gandhi’s apparent ascendancy, and uncertain leadership qualities, has raised questions about whether a family political dynasty is compatible with a modern democracy. In September, Reuters interviewed Congress party officials and family friends, some of whom have talked to the media for the first time. They revealed deep concerns about the future of the Gandhi dynasty.

Rahul’s taking over as Congress president, if and when it happens, will come at a time when the government is battling high inflation, corruption scandals and slowing growth. Is this the right move for the ruling Congress?

from India Insight:

Women wield power in election wrangling

With the wrangling for allies in earnest ahead of election results due Saturday, women leaders hold an inordinate amount of power in deciding who will form the new Indian government.

Women leaders have always had a role in the rough and tumble of Indian politics, from Sarojini Naidu and Annie Besant in the independence struggle to Indira Gandhi, the second woman in the world to become prime minister.

Women leaders are perhaps at the peak of their influence now, with Gandhi's political heir regarded the most powerful of them all -- indeed, the most powerful political leader in the country.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is credited with energising the party and leading it to a surprising victory in the 2004 election, and she looks to have the lead this time around too, according to exit polls.

Gandhi, once voted the world's sixth most powerful woman by Forbes, walked away from the prime minister's job in 2004, but her influence over party allies and even with the on-again off-again left is unquestionable.

Her influence though, doesn't extend to Mayawati, the feisty and controversial leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party and chief minister of the potentially swing state of Uttar Pradesh, which sends a whopping 80 seats to the lower house.

Mayawati, hailed as queen of the lower-caste Dalits, is part of the Third Front, and a prime ministerial aspirant whose ambition mirrors her party's elephant symbol.