Rahul Gandhi (born June 19, 1970) is an Indian politician and member of the Indian National Congress. He is the son of Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi, the grandson of the late Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, and the great-grandson of the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1991, he lost his father, Rajiv Gandhi (also a former prime minister), who was assassinated by the Tamil Tigers.
His mother, Sonia Gandhi, took over as the president of the Indian National Congress in 1998 but Rahul stayed away from politics until 2004. He worked as a financial consultant in London before returning to India in August 2002. He won a seat in the 2004 parliamentary election from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh by a margin of 300,500 votes. Incidentally, he is the same age as his late uncle Sanjay Gandhi was when he won the elections from Amethi years ago. His sister, Priyanka Gandhi, helped supervise his campaign.
In 1989, he took admission into the much coveted St Stephen's College of Delhi on the basis of his abilities as a competitive pistol shooter, but this claim was widely disputed. He dropped out of Stephens a year later and instead headed for the United States in 1990. There he enrolled into the Harvard University to study Economics. It is said that Harvard alumni records Rahul Gandhi as attending between 1990 and 1993, but not as a degree student. Finally again, he was shifted (for security reasons) to the Rollins College in Florida to do his B.A. in 1994.
Said to be working with a financial consulting agency in the United States, Rahul Gandhi is said to have left his job in 1999 to assist his sister and mother for preparing for that year’s Lok Sabha elections in India. That Rahul Gandhi was seriously planning to foray into Indian politics spread around as a strong speculation first in 2003 and even the young man did not directly deny this. Soon thereafter, he began to accompany his mother Sonia to various meeting and events of the Indian National Congress party.
When Rahul Gandhi and his equally popular sister, Priyanka visited their father’s former constituency at Amethi that was under their mother’s charge that time, the speculation about Rahul’s entering politics reached a crescendo and the final yes came in March 2004. Rahul Gandhi eventually announced that he was standing for his father's former constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh state in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament in India. At that time, the Congress had been faring inefficiently in Uttar Pradesh and held sway over only 10 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
As such, this announcement about Rahul Gandhi generated surprise because many held that his sister Priyanka was more charismatic and therefore likelier to win. Nevertheless, Rahul’s candidacy was received happily by Amethi locals. Same time, his love life with Columbian girlfriend, Juanita was also said to be blooming. In media interview, he clarified that Veronique was his girlfriend and that she was Spanish and not Columbian. Moving back to politics again, Rahul Gandhi won the election with a tremendous majority and proved successful in securing the family stronghold at Amethi with a margin of more than 100,000.
The Congress party had surprisingly defeated the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Rahul Gandhi is now the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee. He has also been given the reins of the Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India. Rahul Gandhi also attended the Congress Working Committee meeting that was convened at New Delhi on 8 November 2007. Recently, the young leader was in news for dining and spending the night on a modest cot at a Dalit’s hut in Uttar Pradesh state’s Sultanpur district.
However, do not be fooled by that calm and controlled façade usually worn by the young Gandhi when in formal public meetings. Not everyone knows that the gentleman also happens to be an avid sports lover. Rahul Gandhi is known to have undergone shooting training in the Aravalli range near Delhi and also nurtures a deep love for power biking, and paragliding.