Rahul Gandhi Could Be Next Indian PM: Senior Government Minister

Friday, January 9, 2009 at 4:32 pm

Rahul Gandhi Could Be Next Indian PM: Senior Government Minister NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi, the young son of the chief of the ruling Congress party, could be
the next prime minister if the party retains power in elections this year, local media on
Friday quoted a senior government minister as saying.

Some Congress leaders touted the 38-year-old heir to India’s most famous political dynasty
for the top job last year, although at the time critics saw this as jumping the gun.

Speculation is rising again as the country gears up for national elections expected by May,
2009.

“The day is not far when Rahul Gandhi will be Indian Prime Minister,” said Foreign Minister
Pranab Mukherjee, according to a newspaper.

“Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister when he was 40 and his son Rahul Gandhi will follow his
footsteps.”

Gandhi’s youthfulness would stand in sharp contrast to that of 81-year-old L.K. Advani,
leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, and the party says he will appeal to
the army of young voters in the billion-plus nation.

Mukherjee’s comments follow the rise of Omar Abdullah, heir to another political dynasty and
said to be a personal friend of Gandhi, as the youngest ever chief minister of held Jammu
and Kashmir.

The bespectacled Rahul, a Cambridge-educated business consultant, surprised India by
contesting polls in 2004 in parliamentary elections.

He became a Congress Party general-secretary last year, a post seen as grooming him for a
shot at the prime ministership in the future.