'Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi party members'
Thursday, 22 January 2004, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi's children Rahul and Priyanka, the fifth generation of India's first political family, have officially taken the plunge into politics, the party announced Thursday. Revealing its best-kept secret, the Congress said Priyanka, 32, and Rahul Gandhi, 34, had taken primary membership of the party but did not give further details. "Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi are an integral part of the Congress and they are its primary members," Congress spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters here. He said, "Thirteen years after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination and two decades after Indira Gandhi's killing, Rahul and Priyanka have come out to shake the confidence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "They have stepped out bravely to serve the party". Later, senior Congress leader Ambika Soni, known to be close to Sonia Gandhi, said a decision to contest the coming parliamentary poll was up to Rahul and Priyanka. The announcement effectively ended years of suspense about their following in the footsteps of their great-great-grandfather Motilal Nehru, great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, grandmother Indira Gandhi, father Rajiv and mother Sonia. It also reaffirmed the 118-year-old party's inescapable and enduring fascination with the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Asked when and where they had joined, Sharma clammed up. "I will give you all information later as to when they joined and where. Historically, they are in the party and technically, yes, they are primary members." The declaration came amid the Gandhi siblings' tour of their mother's Lok Sabha constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, a move that stoked speculation about their entry into the Congress and the possibility of their contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha poll. On Wednesday, the party had said the young Gandhis had not "formally" joined the party but belonged to the Congress by birth. "It is not an announcement. It is just a response to some very provocative questions that have been raised," Sharma told IANS when asked why so much secrecy surrounded the development. The Congress was defensive while dismissing criticism about its dynastic trap from main rival BJP. "No one can expect a sound political comment from that party (the BJP) when it comes to the Nehru-Gandhi family. A mere tour of Amethi by them has unnerved the party which claims it is confident of winning 300 seats in the coming Lok Sabha polls," Sharma said. He challenged the BJP to name one family or one leader who had taken part in the country's freedom struggle or made sacrifices like the Nehru-Gandhi family. The news is expected to galvanise millions of Congress workers who have been craving for Priyanka and Rahul's active involvement in the party. An internal report by a panel headed by former central minister Pranab Mukherjee had proposed the involvement of the two to attract young voters to the Congress. Priyanka, a spitting image of her grandmother Indira, has been managing her mother's constituency for a while but cautiously avoided greater involvement. Even more detached was Rahul, who bears a striking resemblance to his father Rajiv. But his joining his sister on the high profile Amethi tour led many to believe he had finally changed his mind about entering politics.
Source: IANS
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