NEW DELHI/AMETHI, 30 March 2004 — Rahul Gandhi got a rousing reception as he kicked off his election campaign yesterday in Amethi, marking his firm entry into politics from the constituency once represented by his late father Rajiv Gandhi and later by mother, Congress party President Sonia Gandhi.

A sea of supporters cried “Long live Rahul Gandhi” as the 33-year-old financial consultant who bears a strong resemblance to his father emerged from his car flashing a dimpled smile in the long-time family-held seat of Amethi.

Hundreds of motorcycle riders wearing the Congress party’s saffron, green and white caps and flags fanned out to accompany his motorcade as it entered the constituency under banners saying, “Welcome our next Prime Minister”.

Villagers scrambled onto rooftops to shower him with rose petals and shout greetings as Rahul drove through the sprawling constituency’s dusty roads, stopping at one village after another.

“It’s a great feeling to be here,” said Rahul, one of the so-called Gen-Next candidates of the once-mighty Congress party, now facing an uphill battle to unseat the ruling Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance.

“I’ll carry on the work my father Rajiv did here. I promise to live up to my father’s dreams,” he said.

He often stopped the convoy to talk to laborers, embrace children and drink tea as huge crowds pressed forward.

Rahul was on a whistlestop tour of the constituency in the electorally pivotal state of Uttar Pradesh which returned his father to Parliament three times — in 1984, 1989 and 1991 — the year he was killed by a female suicide bomber.

Rahul, surrounded by heavy security due to the assassinations of his father and grandmother, told reporters the response to his political debut was “overwhelming”.

The Congress, out of office since 1996, announced earlier this month it would field Rahul in what analysts say is an attempt to revive the party’s fortunes in elections due to be held in stages starting on April 20.

“I’ve seen several generations of Nehrus (former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru) and Gandhis,” said one elderly villager, Ram Praful, now in his 90s. “I’ve now come to see Rahul and we have a lot of hope. We will not let the sacrifices made by the family go in vain.”

Congress has launched an advertisement blitz depicting Rahul as his father’s reincarnation and his sister, Priyanka, as the political inheritor of her grandmother, Indira.

Rahul is unlikely to face a tough fight as Amethi has sent a Gandhi family member to India’s 545-member lower house since 1980 with only one break. But polls say the national elections will almost certainly be won by the BJP alliance.

Rahul’s Italian-born mother Sonia, whose foreign origins are often cited as a reason for the Congress’ woes, was elected in Amethi in 1999. She has chosen to shift to the neighboring Rae Bareilly constituency, also a family seat.

The two are running in Uttar Pradesh where Congress’ fortunes have been fading fast. The state, India’s most populous with 80 seats, is seen as key as strategists believe that whichever party wins there will form the national government. In the 1999 election, it elected only 10 Congress MPs.

Congress is keeping quiet over the possible entry into the fray of Priyanka, 32. Newspaper editorials, however, have said that even if Priyanka runs, the Gandhi charm was unlikely to work its old magic in India’s increasingly fragmented political landscape.

Still, voters in Amethi said they would remain loyal to the Gandhis.

Kashmir Group Calls Poll Boycott, Pulls Out of Separatist Alliance

A leading separatist group yesterday called on Kashmiris to boycott India’s national elections next month and announced it was pulling out of the restive region’s main separatist alliance.

“My party is for a total boycott of elections in the state,” said Mohammed Yasin Malik, head of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). “I hope people will heed my call.”

He also announced that he was pulling his party out of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a coalition of 23 Kashmiri separatist groups which was formed in 1994.