Female 'Gandhi with guts' joins election fight

Priyanka Ghandi Vadra receives a giant garland during an election campaign in her mother's constituency of Rae Bareli, India. Photo / AP

India's ruling Congress Party has turned to its last Gandhi to save it from humiliation in what is expected to be the party's first general election defeat for 15 years.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the daughter of the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, joined the election trail last week amid a growing clamour for her to succeed her brother as the party's campaign leader.

Mrs Gandhi Vadra, known to Congress workers as "PGV", last week took on the mantle of leadership when she toured her mother Sonia Gandhi's Rae Bareli constituency to shore up the "family vote", and supported Rahul Gandhi, her brother, in Amethi at the weekend.

Disenchantment among voters and demoralisation among Congress workers over its lacklustre campaign has increased, while Narendra Modi, the controversial leader of the rival Bharatiya Janata Party, has generated growing excitement with commanding campaign speeches throughout India.

Mr Modi has repeatedly insulted Mr Gandhi as a "shehzada", meaning pampered prince, but he has declined to respond despite suggestions his party could lose around 100 of its 218 parliamentary seats. His party workers fear he doesn't have the stomach for the fight and are turning to his feisty sister who has, they say, the spirit of her grandmother, the late prime minister Indira Gandhi. Mrs Gandhi's memory is revered for India's victory over Pakistan in their 1971 war.

Mrs Gandhi Vadra entered the fray earlier this month with a series of attacks on Mr Modi and other BJP leaders, which immediately boosted party morale and cast her as the "Gandhi with guts". Party insiders say she wants to lead Congress, but will not act until her brother renounces his own leadership ambitions.

One influential figure, who asked not to be named, contrasted her "natural communication skills" and ability to "connect with ordinary people" with her brother's "awkward, aloof" style.

Priyanka Vadra, daughter of Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, interacts with village women during an election campaign in her mother's constituency of Rae Bareli, India. Photo / AP

Tarun Gogoi, a senior Congress leader and Assam chief minister, last week called for Mrs Gandhi Vadra to play a "greater role in party affairs". At Shora Gangaganj in her mother's Rae Bareli constituency, poor women in bare feet waited in fierce midday heat last week to see Mrs Gandhi Vadra. She arrived with heavy security and a phalanx of Sports Utility Vehicles and was greeted with weak chants of "Long live Priyanka Gandhi."

Rae Bareli and Amethi have returned members of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty or retainers as MPs in almost all general elections. Party insiders said they believe both Sonia Gandhi and her son will win their contests, but with reduced margins amid a growing revolt over the failure to improve basic local living conditions.

Mrs Gandhi Vadra focused instead on her own concerns at public criticism of her husband, the multi-millionaire businessman Robert Vadra, who is accused of exploiting poor farmers in Haryana and Rajasthan. He denies the allegations. "I feel sad when people in politics insult me and my husband but I have taken a lesson from Indira. The more people insult you, the stronger you come out. The more you insult me the more I will fight," she said.

Swapan Dasgupta, a conservative columnist, said Mrs Vadra Gandhi was a more natural leader than her brother, but the role still held dangers for her, due to her "imperious" manner and probable increased pressure over her and her husband's affairs.