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In India, a new member of the Nehru Gandhi dynasty has just entered politics. Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of Sonia Gandhi and sister of Rahul Gandhi, current chairman of the Indian National Congress party. She will head a regional section of family formation, ahead of the May legislative elections. A key card for Congress, in decline in recent years.
From our correspondent in India,
Short-haired, aquiline nose and elongated line, Priyanka Gandhi reminds many Indians of her grandmother, Indira Gandhi , the Iron-fisted Prime Minister in the 1970s and 1980s. But the 47-year-old has not played for the moment only second roles in the Congress party, in support of his family during the campaigns.
She explains that she wanted to protect her two children from the political violence she suffered. His father Rajiv , and his grandmother Indira Gandhi , were both murdered when she was young. Her children are now teenagers and Priyanka throws herself into the arena, assuming the role of general secretary of the party in charge of the eastern state of Uttar Pradesh, where Benares is located.
Difficult mission
It was in this sacred city of Benares that the outgoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected, still very popular today. Priyanka Gandhi therefore takes responsibility for a very large and disputed area. But his arrival could help revive the flame of a training rout. The Indian National Congress, which has led two-thirds of governments since independence, won less than 10 percent of the assembly seats five years ago. Now, Priyanka Gandhi seems quite popular.
She is a woman of outspoken character, full of empathy. The journalists who met her say they are amazed at how quickly she is accepted by the rural populations she meets. She has this charisma that has been so successful to her grandmother, Indira Gandhi. And which is essential for this center-left party, supposed to represent as much the poor people, the Muslims as the high castes of Brahmans. This caste belongs to the Nehru Gandhi family.
Appointment criticized
The Hindu Nationalist Party, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, denounces the Congress's dynastic tradition, whose leadership has almost never come out of the fold of the family since the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1951. Priyanka Gandhi has another weakness in the eyes of her detractors: her husband. Robert Vadra is in fact suspected of illegal land grabbing and corruption in many cases. And opponents of the party will not deprive themselves of using this weapon to attack the Gandhi during the campaign that begins.