Rahul Gandhi is a member of the Indian Parliament representing the Wayanad Constituency of Kerala in the 17th Lok Sabha and an Indian Politician. He is a member of the Indian National Congress and worked as the President of the Indian National Congress from December 16, 2017, to July 3, 2019. Gandhi is the chairperson of the Indian Youth Congress, the National Students Union of India. He is also the trustee of the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust and Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
Gandhi declared to enter active politics in 2004 and successfully contested the general election held that year from Amethi. He was elected Congress Vice President in 2013, having previously worked as the General Secretary. Gandhi led the Congress campaign in the Indian General Elections of 2014, where the party suffered the worst defeat in its history.
Gandhi succeeded his mother as Congress party leader in 2017 and led the congress into the Indian General Election of 2019. The party won only 44 seats in contrast to 206 seats previously in the General Election of 2014. INC won only 52 seats, failing to get 10% of the seats needed to affirm the post of opposition leader. Despite his poor performance, he resigned from the post and was succeeded by his mother, Sonia Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi Educational Qualification
Gandhi went to St Columba’s School in Delhi before entering The Doon School in Dehradun, which is in Uttarakhand, from 1981 to 1983. Meantime his father joined politics and became the Prime Minister on October 31, 1984, when Indira Gandhi died. Due to the security menace faced by Indira Gandhi’s family from Sikh extremists, Rahul and her sister Priyanka were home-schooled afterward.
Gandhi went to St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, in 1989 for his undergraduate education, but he moved to Harvard University after completing his first-year examination. After the death of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 by the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in the course of an election rally, he moved to Rollins College, Florida, USA, allegedly due to security concerns, and had a Bachelor’s Degree in 1994. In 1995, he obtained an M Phil from Trinity College, Cambridge.
He also worked for the Monitor Group, a management consulting firm in London, for three years. When Gandhi returned to India in 2002, he set up his Consultancy Technology that is Backops Services Private Limited in Mumbai, where he was one of the firm’s administrators. After that, he opened Backops UK, a firm used to collect defense contracts from foreign companies supplied to the Indian armed force. Subramaniam Swamy noticed that Rahul declared himself a British citizen in the company’s filing, but the congress party said it was a yearly mistake.
Rahul Gandhi: A Motivated Leader of INC
Gandhi declared his entry into politics by announcing that he would contest the 2004 May elections, standing for his father’s former constituency of Amethi, that is in Uttar Pradesh in Lok Sabha. His mother has controlled the seat until she moved to the neighboring seat of Rae Bareli. The congress was performing poorly in Uttar Pradesh, holding 10 out of 80 seats in Lok Sabha. He will try to reduce the caste and religious tension, he mentioned in an interview with foreign media.
Gandhi characterizes himself as the uniter of the country. He was an essential figure in the congress campaign for the 2007 UP assembly elections. Rahul Gandhi achieved by maintained family stronghold with a victory on the verge of 100,000. He holds no other office until 2006. Both Gandhi and his sister tried to manage their mother’s campaign for re-election to Rae Bareli in 2006. And they won on the verge of over 400,000 votes.
Gandhi joined as General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee on September 24, 2007, in the reshuffle of the party secretariat.
He was also given charge of the Indian Youth Congress and National Students Union of India. After that, he vowed to reform youth politics. Under Gandhi, the IYCand NSUI has observed a dramatic increase in members from 200,000 to 2.5 million.
General Election 2009
Gandhi maintained his Amethi seat in the Indian General Election of 2009 by defeating his nearest rival on the verge of over 370,000 votes. Gandhi was acknowledged for congress revival in Uttar Pradesh. There they won 21 out of the 80 Lok sabha seats. Gandhi arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police at Bhatta Parsaul village after he turned out to support agitating farmers asking for more compensation for their land, which was for high projects. Later he got bail.
Indian General Election 2019
Gandhi led the election campaign of INC. Under his leadership party enhanced its seats from 44 out of 543 in 2014 to 52 out of 542 in 2019. In the same year, its votes increased from 19.3% to 19.5%. Gandhi contested from two constituencies in the 2019 Lok Sabha election: Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, and Wayanad, Kerala. Gandhi won the Wayanad seat but lost the Amethi seat.
Farmers and Land Agitation
On April 19, 2015, Gandhi addressed the worker’s and farmers’ rally named as Kisan khet mazdoor rally in Ramlila maidan. One lakh people attended the rally. He criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his comment in Toronto. The comment was about cleaning the mess from the earlier government. Gandhi also teased the government as a ‘suit boot’ government. Also, he mentioned the “Ache Din Government” jibe and stated that it had failed the country.
Also, Gandhi has thrust for women’s empowerment. Gandhi approved the Women’s Reservation Bill, which would allow the reservation of 30% of all Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assembly seats for women. This bill passes the Rajya Sabha but has not voted on Lok Sabha as of February 2014.
Gandhi backed the repeal of the Indian Penal Code Section 377 and decriminalizing of homosexuality.
Rahul Gandhi Age and Family Profile
Gandhi was born in Delhi on June 19, 1970. He is the first of the two children of Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India. Rahul’s mother is an Italian born Sonia Gandhi who became the President of Indian National Congress.
Rahul Gandhi is the grandson of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. His paternal grandfather was Feroze Gandhi, who was a Parsi from Gujarat.
Most importantly, he is also the great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. Priyanka Vadra is his younger sister. His brother-in-law is Robert Vadra.
READ ALSO: Priyanka Gandhi Biography
