India’s oldest party, the Congress, virtually written off by political pundits and rivals, made a stunning comeback on Thursday in national polls under the leadership of its Italian-born chief, Sonia Gandhi.
Results of India’s staggered polls showed the party and its allies sweeping the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its coalition partners from power.
The last Congress government completed its tenure in 1996.
Formed in 1885, the Congress party, which spawned India’s apostle of peace Mahatma Gandhi and first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was at the forefront of the campaign to free the country from British rule.
After independence, it gave India five prime ministers, three of them from India’s political first family, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
Under Nehru, India adopted a socialist model of economy and a ”non-aligned approach” in its foreign policy, officially steering clear of both the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War although in practice cosying up to Moscow.
Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi became prime minister in 1966 and ruled India for 16 years.
She was assassinated in October 1984 by two of her Sikh security guards.
A sympathy wave for the Congress and Gandhi’s political heir, son Rajiv, saw the party that year winning more than 400 seats in the 545-member parliament — its largest mandate to date.
But steps to modernise India by Rajiv Gandhi, India’s youngest prime minister, were overshadowed by his alleged involvement in an arms bribery scandal that brought down his government in 1989.
The Congress under Rajiv was widely tipped to win polls two years later but he was assassinated by a suicide bomber.
The resultant sympathy vote won Congress more than 200 seats in the 1991 polls and, though short of the parliamentary majority of 272, it ran a minority government with Narasimha Rao as prime minister thanks to the support of some smaller groups.
Rao introduced market reforms and economic liberalisation, a departure from Nehru’s socialist model of economics, but was unable to sell it to the people and he lost the 1996 vote.
Rao was unceremoniously replaced by another Congress leader who was tossed out after a poor showing in the 1998 polls.
Congress leaders then turned to Rajiv’s Italian-born widow Sonia to help it recover and under her leadership managed to bag the administration of 15 of India’s 28 states, though it lost four of these last December.
With Thursday’s victory, the party’s wheel of fortune has turned yet again. — Sapa-AFP