Pitchforked into the centre of the Congress poll campaign, Rahul Gandhi, touted as the future prime minister, has raised his political profile and emerged from his parents' shadow in charting UPA's return to power and helping the party's resurgence in Uttar Pradesh.
Representing the fourth generation of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and the party's star campaigner in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections, Rahul's place under the sun highlighted the party's lack of alternatives and its continuing reliance on the first political family for leadership and direction.
39-year-old Rahul, who is widely credited for bringing young faces in the Congress at the grassroot level, has been learning the political ropes by spending time in his constituency and other villages, much to the discomfort of rival political parties.
Despite his reserved style, Rahul is worshipped as a living God in the neighbouring Gandhi constituenices of Amethi and Rae Bareli where his visits resemble religious festivals.And it appears that he has been successfully able to transfer the affection felt for him in Amethi to other parts of the crucial state of UP where the Congress' support base has been crushed over the years.
Rahul appeared to be a big draw among new, young voters which may have contributed in the good showing by Congress. After his appointment as general secretary of Congress, Rahul is the man expected to step up as and when someone is needed to succeed the ageing Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Rahul entered active politics in 2004 when he decided to contest the Lok Sabha polls from the traditional family constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh which his assassinated father Rajiv Gandhi had once held.
His decision to enter formal politics before the 2004 general election took many by surprise. Until then Rahul had been seen as a shy man whose interests were thought to lie more in cricket matches and the outdoors than in political life.
Priyanka, his sister, was viewed by many as the more charismatic of the pair and the more likely to enter Parliament. Why he, rather than she, answered the party's call for a new generation of Gandhis was not fully clear.
Despite Rahul's "dark horse" image, however, he is said by some analysts to have a detailed political knowledge and to be a practised backroom operator. Since his election to Parliament, Rahul has been widely expected to play a major role either in government or the party.
Even so, in January 2006 he turned down appeals to play a more high-profile Congress party role. "My place right now is among our people, my place right now is to learn and understand so I can serve my people and party better," he had said.
Rahul was named one of the general secretaries of the Congress in 2007.
