Yet another Gandhi rises in Indian politics

SULTANPUR, India — For hundreds of thousands of people in this largely rural swath of north India, Rahul Gandhi is their prince.

Huge crowds wait for hours under a scorching sun to watch his motorcade and maybe catch a glimpse as he makes his way to file his nomination papers for the national election.

As his SUV slows to a crawl, mobs of supporters shower it with rose petals and try to peer through the tinted windows.

When steps onto the running board to wave, a roar rises across this dusty town, in an area where his family has long had its political base: "What should the leader of this country be like?" shouts one group. "Like Rahul Gandhi!" another group shouts back.

Running for re-election

The boyish-looking 38-year-old, running for re-election to parliament, is the latest political incarnation of a dynasty that stretches back well over 60 years: his father, Rajiv Gandhi, was prime minister. So was his grandmother, Indira Gandhi. His mother, Sonia Gandhi, leads the Congress party, which heads the ruling coalition. His great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was India's first prime minister and the faithful lieutenant of independence leader Mahatma Gandhi (no relation).

It all adds up to a family that has run India for 37 of its 62 years of independence.

Now, as a monthlong national election unfolds, Rahul Gandhi has become a force in Indian politics and the buzz around him as the eventual candidate for the country's top post has turned into a roar.

With just five years of political experience, he is not an obvious political star: He's an awkward public speaker who has said little of substance about many key policy issues. He won a seat in Parliament by a landslide in 2004, only to flunk another test three years later, when the election campaign he headed in India's largest state, Uttar Pradesh, failed to win any gains for his party.

But he has the right last name — and in a country in thrall to celebrity and the ideals of family, he has become the party's star campaigner, drawing huge crowds to a dizzying number of electioneering stops.

First-name basis

On Congress party billboards, it's Rahul — so well known that he's commonly referred to by just his first name — who shares space with his mother and the prime minister.

It makes for good campaigning, but it highlights the dynastic quality of Indian politics, Congress' opponents complain.

"This is a party where the top slot is reserved for a single family," said Nalin Kohli, a spokesman for the main opposition, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

It's a charge Gandhi can't ignore — and even he says it's time for family dynasties to fade into political history. To that end, he's encouraging young people who are not from powerful families to work for the Congress party.

"Just because I'm the outcome of a system doesn't mean I cannot change the system," he told a rare news conference.

But in the 2009 election, the big question is whether this Gandhi's celebrity will translate into more votes.

He faces a global economic slowdown, which has shifted the focus from Congress' main achievement, India's rapid growth in the last few years. And the government has been criticized for its bungled handling of the Mumbai terror attack in November in which 166 people died.

The election results will be announced Saturday, and polls indicate no party will get enough votes to rule except in a shaky coalition, possibly including dozens of parties.

Gandhi himself has remained vague about his future — never rejecting the idea outright of being prime minister but accusing the media of prematurely projecting him into the job.

To supporters who want him to play a more prominent role, he urges patience.

A graduate of Rollins College in Florida and Cambridge University in England, he often looks uncomfortable when surrounded by crowds of poor villagers, but tells a crowd on a recent campaign stop:

"I entered politics to help the poor. Irrespective of caste, religion and region, I will always work to empower the poor who are the real strength of the nation."