NEW DELHI: India’s opposition Congress party will hold leadership elections next month, an official said Monday, amid growing speculation Rahul Gandhi will take over from his mother as its leader.
Rahul, whose father, grandmother and great-grandfather all served as prime minister, was the center-left party’s front man in the last general election. But his 70-year-old mother Sonia remains its president and still calls the shots.
She has not publicly announced a decision to stand down as Congress president, but party official Mullappally Ramachandran said after a meeting of senior leaders on Monday that an election would be held next month.
The announcement followed months of speculation that the 47-year-old scion of the Gandhi dynasty would soon take over from his mother. Party sources said he would likely stand unopposed for the role.
Rahul Gandhi was elected vice president of the Congress party in 2013 and has long been his mother’s presumed successor.
He was strongly criticized for a lackluster campaign for the 2014 general election, in which Congress recorded its worst ever showing and lost power to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
But few inside the party, which has since suffered a series of state election defeats, have been willing to publicly criticize the family that has been at its helm for generations.
Rasheed Kidwai, a political journalist and author of a book on Sonia Gandhi, said Rahul’s promotion was now a “foregone conclusion,” warning he would be under huge pressure to turn the party’s fortunes around.
“In the party’s history, no Gandhi has failed to win elections and get results,” Kidwai said. “Rahul is yet to pass that test.”
Kidwai said Rahul was more “temperamental and impulsive” than his Italian-born mother, widow of the assassinated former premier Rajiv Gandhi, and would be taking over at a challenging time for the party.
Sonia Gandhi wielded huge influence over Congress administrations despite having no official government role.
But the state of her health has been the subject of much speculation in India since 2011, when she went to the United States for surgery.
Rahul has long had the reputation of a reluctant leader who lacks the charisma to revive the flagging political dynasty.
Some Congress supporters have called for his sister Priyanka to take a more prominent role, but she has always refused.
Party supporters however said Rahul had displayed greater political acumen in recent years.
“Earlier, he was too young and didn’t have a lot of experience, so he used to make mistakes sometimes. But now he has become more seasoned,” veteran party leader Virbhadra Singh said ahead of Monday’s announcement.
Congress has ruled India for most of the period since independence in 1947 and has almost always been led by the Nehru-Gandhi clan, beginning with the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
On Monday the party set a December 4 deadline for nominations for president and said any vote would be held on December 16.
It held its last leadership election in 2010, when Sonia Gandhi stood unopposed.
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India’s Rahul Gandhi set to take over as Congress party chief
India’s Rahul Gandhi set to take over as Congress party chief
Militants kill 6 officers and a civilian in ambushes on police vehicles in northwest Pakistan
- Assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat — When police reinforcements arrived minutes later, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian
- No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A pair of attacks on police vehicles by suspected militants killed at least six police officers and a civilian in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, authorities said.
The assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. When police reinforcements arrived minutes later, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian, police official Kamran Khan said.
Separately on Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police post in Bukkur, a district in eastern Punjab province, killing two officers and wounding four others, police official Shahzad Rafiq said.
He provided no further details and only said officers were still investigating.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have increased across the country in recent months.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attacks in Kohat and Bukkur and offered condolences to the victims’ families.
The latest violence followed an attack on a paramilitary post in Karak on Monday, when a drone loaded with explosives wounded several officers. The attackers later ambushed two ambulances transporting the wounded, killing three officers and burning their bodies before fleeing. The driver of the second ambulance transported several wounded officers despite suffering burn injuries and authorities recovered the remains of the three officers.
No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP. The TTP is separate from, but closely allied with, Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad has accused the group of operating from inside Afghanistan, a claim the TTP and Kabul deny.
Pakistan’s military said it killed at least 70 militants on Sunday in strikes along the Afghan border, targeting hideouts of Pakistani militants blamed for recent attacks inside the country.
The assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. When police reinforcements arrived minutes later, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian, police official Kamran Khan said.
Separately on Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police post in Bukkur, a district in eastern Punjab province, killing two officers and wounding four others, police official Shahzad Rafiq said.
He provided no further details and only said officers were still investigating.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have increased across the country in recent months.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attacks in Kohat and Bukkur and offered condolences to the victims’ families.
The latest violence followed an attack on a paramilitary post in Karak on Monday, when a drone loaded with explosives wounded several officers. The attackers later ambushed two ambulances transporting the wounded, killing three officers and burning their bodies before fleeing. The driver of the second ambulance transported several wounded officers despite suffering burn injuries and authorities recovered the remains of the three officers.
No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP. The TTP is separate from, but closely allied with, Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad has accused the group of operating from inside Afghanistan, a claim the TTP and Kabul deny.
Pakistan’s military said it killed at least 70 militants on Sunday in strikes along the Afghan border, targeting hideouts of Pakistani militants blamed for recent attacks inside the country.
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