The Sonia Years - Implosion: India's Tryst with Reality - page 164

against Sonia. Rao had replied, 'not yet'. Pilot was, however, likely to stand a year later, as
Loyn revealed in an obituary in The Independent. 6 'He believed that Congress would nev-
er be electable under its present leader, Rajiv Gandhi's Italian-born widow Sonia,' wrote
Loyn. 'The party gives huge powers of patronage to the leader, encouraging sycophancy,
and making opposition risky. But in London last month [May 2000] Pilot told me that he
was close to declaring that he would stand against Sonia Gandhi as party president later this
year. He had the encouragement of several senior figures, and he thought he might unseat
Gandhi if she did not stand aside first.' After Pilot's death, Prasada, who had been Rao's
private secretary and had been marginalized by Sonia, 7 did stand but was humiliatingly de-
feated 8 in what was to become the only contested presidential election of Sonia's political
career. He died soon after.
Sonia rarely allowed herself to be questioned closely in public (even in later years) but
became secure as party leader because she seemed to many to be growing into a potential
election winner. She gained enough confidence to woo other potential parties nationally
and to do an arduous 60,000-km countrywide tour in the run-up to the May 2004 gener-
al election. Her tour marked a re-launch of the Gandhi dynasty, at a time when its future
looked shak y 9 and the Congress was not expected to win.
Rahul Gandhi, then 33, made his political debut in the 2004 campaign after spending
most of his twenties abroad. His emergence gave supporters confidence that the dynasty
would continue into the future, and he was the star turn. Elected for the first time as a Con-
gress MP from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, his father's old constituency, he was seen as the
heir to the family dynasty and the reincarnation of his father. 'I come as a son and as a
brother - and as a friend - elections come and go but I'll stay,' he shyly told Amethi vil-
lagers on a day when I followed him on the election trail. 10 He had a candour that defied
allegations of spin, and his audiences were impressed, not just because he was young and
seemed honest and sincere, but because he looked and sounded like his father. For them,
Rajiv had returned, 13 years after he was assassinated, and life might be good again.
He said his agenda was to 'tackle the bigotry that divides caste and class against each
other'. Friends of the family likened that to his father's (unsuccessful) ambition in the
1980s to steer India away from increasingly corrupt and self-serving governance. Rahul
said his 32-year-old sister Priyanka was his 'best friend - supportive, good-hearted and
sensitive', and she said he was 'a good sincere human being who cares for people and their
problems'. Priyanka showed how she could mix more naturally with crowds than Rahul.
She did not stand as a candidate, but helped with her mother's successful campaign in Rae
Bareli, the constituency next to Amethi. She looked set for wider political involvement in
the future.
There was, however, still considerable disenchantment with Sonia Gandhi's leadership,
despite her visibly improved performance. During the election campaign, several leading