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India's ruling Congress party wins resounding victory

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-17 10:07

While the results marked the success of the government's policies, it also heralded the next chapter in the country's deep ties to its most powerful political dynasty.

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The Congress party has long said that Singh, 76, an economist and technocrat who helped open India's economy nearly 20 years ago, would return to power if it won. But the election was also a clear victory for party chief Sonia Gandhi's son, Rahul, who emerged as a key strategist during the campaign and became the party's most visible face.

While a relative political newcomer, he has been increasingly viewed as a future prime minister. "This is the beginning of the real rise to power of Rahul Gandhi," said Rangarajan, the analyst.

Rahul, 38, is a scion of India's most powerful family -- the son of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, grandson of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister. The family was closely allied to the pacifist icon Mohandas Gandhi, though they are not related.

The election also scuttled the ambitions of the "Third Front," an alliance of regional and caste-based parties that had banded together -- and which for a time had been seen as a wild card that could emerge with immense power.

Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi (L) and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pose for photographers prior to their meeting at her residence in New Delhi May 16, 2009. [Agencies]

Among these was Mayawati, who had made clear her ambition to be India's first low-caste politician.

Mayawati, a Dalit, or "untouchable," the social outcasts at the bottom of the caste system, has emerged as a major force in Indian politics, winning control of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state in 2007 state elections.

But she failed to replicate her success -- based on an alliance of Dalits and high-caste Hindu Brahmins — in the national elections.

As results came in, celebrations erupted outside the Congress party headquarters. Party workers set off fireworks and danced in the streets carrying posters of party leader Sonia Gandhi.

"We have won a thumping majority," Congress activist Parag Jain said outside the party offices, in a leafy, elegant south New Delhi neighborhood. "Successful rule begins and ends with Congress and the Gandhi family."

 

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