More Rahul Gandhi's election than Modi's: The lad becomes a leader

The real test of Rahul Gandhi's political maturity, however, will come on May 23. If the opportunity to form a coalition govt presents itself, it would be interesting to see how prepared he is

In many ways this general election has been more about the arrival of Rahul Gandhi as a national leader than about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election. Bean counters would say that such a judgment would depend entirely on the number of Lok Sabha seats that the Congress manages to win. To do that would be to miss out on Rahul Gandhi’s personal and political transformation. He has clearly shed the image of a novice and emerged as an indefatigable and dogged political campaigner who is here to stay.

He has shown focus in his campaign, combativeness in attacking the government’s