Rahul Gandhi was born on June 19, 1970, in Delhi, as the first of the two children of Rajiv Gandhi, India’s former prime minister, and Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Indian National Congress, and the grandson of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Feroze Gandhi, Rahul’s paternal grandfather, was a Gujarati Parsi. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, is his great-grandfather. He has a younger sister, Priyanka Vadra, and a brother-in-law, Robert Vadra.
Before entering politics, Rahul was adamant about establishing a professional career.
Gandhi announced his debut into politics in March 2004, stating that he will run for the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of Parliament, in the May 2004 elections, representing his father’s former constituency, Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
Gandhi promised to reform youth politics when he was appointed general secretary in charge of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and the National Student’s Union of India (NSUI) in September 2007. The IYC and NSUI have grown from 200,000 to 2.5 million members under his leadership.
Rahul Gandhi was credited with the Congress’ comeback in Uttar Pradesh, when they won 21 of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats, by defeating his nearest challenger by nearly 370,000 votes in the 2009 Indian general election.
In six weeks, he addressed 125 rallies across the country. Pre-poll projections and exit polls failed to predict the outcome of the national elections.
He ran for the Indian National Congress in the 2014 general election from his Amethi constituency and oversaw the party’s election campaign, eventually, he won the Amethi seat by a slim margin of 107,000 votes over his nearest rival, BJP’s Smriti Irani. Gandhi offered to leave his posts after the defeat, but the party’s working committee turned him down.
Gandhi adopted the phrase “Chowkidar Chor Hai” to mock BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the 2019 Indian general election. The phrase was directed at Modi in response to allegations of irregularities and favoritism in the awarding of the Rafale fighter aircraft contract.
The Supreme Court of India heard the case, and after carefully reviewing all the evidence, the high court dismissed the case and exonerated India’s current government.
On November 13, 2013, the Election Commission of India expressed its concern with Gandhi’s answer and recommended he be more cautious in his public statements during election campaigns.
At a Madhya Pradesh election rally in Indore after the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, Gandhi said that a police officer warned him that Pakistan’s ISI was attempting to recruit dissatisfied riot-affected youth.
The district administration, the state government of Uttar Pradesh, the Union Home Ministry, the Research and Analysis Wing, and the Intelligence Bureau, on the other hand, all denied any such development.
On April 19, 2015, Gandhi spoke at the Kisan Khet Mazdoor Rally in Ramlila Maidan, a farmer, and worker’s rally. He mentioned his agitations in Niyamgiri, Odisha, and Bhatta-Parsaul, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, in this speech.
Women “should” be given 33 percent of all parliamentary Lok Sabha and state legislative assembly seats, as well as government positions, according to Gandhi. Gandhi advocated for the removal of the Indian Penal Code Section 377 and the decriminalization of homosexuality.
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