In boost for India’s opposition, Nehru-Gandhi scion Priyanka gears up for electoral debut

After years of shunning the spotlight, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family and granddaughter of India’s first female prime minister, has signalled that she is ready to take the political centre stage by contesting a parliamentary seat for the first time.

“Priyanka is a great public speaker, and the moment is perfect for her to enter parliament,” Uday Chandra, an assistant professor of government at Georgetown University, told This Week in Asia.

Chandra said Priyanka’s political acumen would strengthen the opposition and she, along with other members of the Nehru-Gandhi family, “will make life very hard indeed for [Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government] in parliament”.

Priyanka spearheaded the recent election campaign of the opposition Indian National Congress in Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country’s Hindi-speaking belts, where the party and its allies secured surprising victories to deny the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) an outright majority in parliament.

The 52-year-old has often been compared to her grandmother, Indira Gandhi, who served two terms as prime minister and commanded a mass following.

On Monday, Priyanka’s elder brother and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi resigned from one of two parliamentary seats he won in the election to make way for his sister to contest the constituency.

Indian law allows a candidate to contest an election from a maximum of two constituencies, but the winner can retain only one seat and must resign from the other within 14 days of the election results.

Rahul will retain Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli, which has been a stronghold for the Gandhi family, while Priyanka will now contest Kerala’s Wayanad seat in a by-election that is expected to be held within