December 17, 2003	Wednesday	Shawwal 22, 1424

NEW DELHI: Will she? Won’t she? Plunge into politics, that is.

That’s the question millions in the world’s largest democracy have been asking since Priyanka Gandhi, heir apparent of the powerful Gandhi-Nehru dynasty, made an appearance as a shy young debutante in a sari almost a decade ago.

Members of Congress, India’s main opposition party, aren’t saying, but many say Priyanka may be the party’s only bet after it was roundly trounced in three crucial state elections this month.

“Many Congressmen believe Priyanka is the Congress party’s trump card,” said Inder Malhotra, a political analyst and biographer of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.

“She should have been asked to campaign before the assembly elections. And they shouldn’t delay it any more because she has tremendous impact and she will certainly be a morale booster.”

Several Congress leaders have been pushing for Priyanka for some time, but they say the party needs the 32-year-old psychology graduate’s charisma now more than ever to help revive its flagging fortunes before next year’s general election.

Congress, 118 years old and India’s oldest political party, fought for the country’s freedom from colonial rule and was the dominant force in Indian politics from independence in 1947 until a Hindu nationalist coalition won power in the mid-1990s.

Since then, it has been banking on the dynastic pull of Sonia Gandhi, widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

But Italian-born Sonia, who is also former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law, just does not strike a chord in India with her faltering Hindi and political inexperience.

Her foreign birth is also a target of bitter criticism.

That, political analysts say, is the reason why Congress hit political rock bottom when it was swept from power in two key states: Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

As a result, Congress controls only about a dozen of the country’s 29 states while its rival, the Bharatiya Janata Party, is going from strength to strength.

Priyanka is emerging as a natural communicator. During visits to the family borough of Amethi, she mingles with the masses and she has been seen sitting on charpoys or traditional jute beds talking to villagers in the dusty state of Uttar Pradesh.

“People believe she is much more of a politician. Plus, the fact that she physically resembles her grandmother, Indira, also works to her advantage,” said Malhotra.

Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, was her great grandfather, Indira Gandhi her grandmother, Rajiv Gandhi her father and dynastic succession is a strong tradition in South Asia.

She may not be in active politics yet, but being a member of India’s first family, her movements are still the subject of lively living-room chatter, much like Prince William in Britain.

Every once in a while, newspapers are plastered with Priyanka pictures: an emotional Priyanka being consoled by her brother at the spot their father was assassinated, a glamorous Priyanka in dazzling silk at a social do or a politically savvy Priyanka in home-spun cotton sitting with peasants.

Some say Sonia is only keeping the seat warm for Priyanka while she’s busy raising her two children, but she will eventually plunge into politics like the rest of the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty.

While she also has an older brother, Rahul, Priyanka is seen as having “star quality” on the hustings with fluent Hindi and a charisma that reminds many of her grandmother.

“She has what’s called the emotional intelligence for politics,” Congress spokesman Jaipal Reddy told Reuters before the state elections.—Reuters