Fall of India's most prominent Nehru-Gandhi dynasty

Being born into India's most prominent Nehru-Gandhi dynasty is traditionally considered as a guaranteed ticket to acquire the Prime Minister's chair. However, destiny has something else in store and, as of now, Gandhi scion Rahul fulfilling the family dream looks more distant than ever.

The 52-year-old 'youth icon' of the Congress was disqualified from Lok Sabha yesterday following his conviction by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case. As a ripple effect, this action, unless stayed by a higher court, will bar Rahul Gandhi from contesting polls for the next 8 years.

India's political landscape also saw a shift in the dynamics of politics within Opposition with leaders of Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and several other parties expressing strong support for the embattled leader, though many of them must be 'elated' in within for getting rid of their biggest competitor in the PM race next year.

This was Gandhi's fourth Lok Sabha term. First elected to Lok Sabha in 2004 from Amethi, he represented that constituency for two more terms. In the 2019 election, he lost the family stronghold Amethi to Smriti Irani but managed to win the poll from Wayanad in Kerala.

The Surat court sentenced Gandhi to two years of imprisonment in the case filed on the basis of a complaint registered by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi for his sweeping remark against a whole community, "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?"

These sudden political winds may be an indication of an imminent demise of the longest standing political dynasty in independent India - the Gandhis. It may be recalled that Rahul Gandhi's grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had also lost her MP status back in 1975.

In her case, Indira was expelled from Lok Sabha and sent to jail on December 19, 1978. She was debarred from holding any elected post for six years following her conviction by the Allahabad High Court but she used her defeat to whip up a frenzy and sympathy for herself.

Rahul's mother Sonia Gandhi too had faced a similar situation when she lost her MP status in 2006 for holding an 'office of profit' creating a conflict of interest. She was forced to resign but only to win it back in the next poll. But for Rahul, it seems like the battle is much tougher and longer.

Meanwhile, another of the Gandhi scion Varun and his mother Maneka are the vestigial remnants in the Parliament. But as the mother-son duo is diametrically opposed to the Congress and have been an integral part of the ruling BJP for long, they are seen more as an 'outcast' in the Gandhi clan.