Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 4 Num 304 Tue. April 06, 2004  
   
International


Rahul files nomination in a rain of rose petals


Rahul Gandhi, great-grandson of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, yesterday filed his nomination to contest national polls, marking the entry of a new generation of the charismatic Gandhi dynasty into mainstream politics.

A grinning Rahul Gandhi filed his papers to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections on behalf of the dynasty's main opposition Congress party from the family borough of Amethi in northern India.

The 33-year-old financial consultant, accompanied by younger sister Priyanka, and mother Sonia Gandhi, who inherited the 119-year-old Congress following the 1991 assassination of her husband and former premier Rajiv Gandhi, drove into Amethi to cheers from thousands of followers.

Picture
Rahul Gandhi (C), grandson of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, takes the oath after he filed his papers to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections in Sultanpur yesterday as his mother, Congress President Sonia Gandhi (L) and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadhera look on. Rahul Gandhi,33, filed his papers to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections as Congress Party nominee from the family borough of Amethi in northern India. PHOTO: AFP