Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Rajiv Gandhi (born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician and a member of the Indian Parliament, who represents the constituency of Wayanad, Kerala in the Lok Sabha.

He previously represented the constituency of Amethi, Uttar Pradesh.

Gandhi was born in Delhi on 19 June 1970, as the first of the two children of Rajiv Gandhi, who later became the prime minister of India, and Italian-born Sonia Gandhi (née Maino), who later became the president of Indian National Congress, and as the grandson of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

His paternal grandfather Feroze Gandhi was a Parsi from Gujarat.

He is also the great-grandson of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

Priyanka Vadra is his younger sister and Robert Vadra is his brother-in-law.

Gandhi attended St. Columba's School, Delhi before entering the elite all-boys' boarding The Doon School in Dehradun (also the alma mater of his father, Rajiv Gandhi) from 1981 to 1983.

At Doon, Gandhi's contemporaries were the former Congress, now-BJP politicians Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasada.

Meanwhile, his father joined politics and became the prime minister on 31 October 1984 when Indira Gandhi was assassinated.

Due to the security threats faced by Indira Gandhi's family from Sikh extremists, Gandhi and his sister, Priyanka, were home-schooled thereafter.

Gandhi joined St. Stephen's College, Delhi (an affiliated college of the University of Delhi), in 1989 for his undergraduate education but moved to Harvard University after he completed the first year examinations.

In 1991, after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) during an election rally, he shifted to Rollins College in Florida, USA, supposedly due to security concerns and obtained his B.A. in 1994.

During his time at Rollins, he assumed the pseudonym Raul Vinci and his identity was known only to the university officials and security agencies.

The following year, due to security threats following the assassination of his father, he moved to Rollins College in Florida, completing his degree in 1994.

The next year, he obtained his M.Phil. from Cambridge.

After completing his post-graduation, he initiated his professional career with the Monitor Group, a management consulting firm in London.

Soon thereafter, he returned to India and founded Backops Services Private Ltd, a technology outsourcing firm based in Mumbai.

He further went on to obtain an Master of Philosophy (MPhil) from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1995.

Before joining politics, Gandhi, worked at the Monitor Group, a management consulting firm, in London for three years.

In 2002, Gandhi returned to India and set up his technology consultancy viz.

Backops Services Private Ltd in Mumbai, where he was one of the directors of the firm.

He then opened BackOps UK, a firm which used to acquire defence contracts from foreign companies that supplied to the Indian armed forces.

In 2004, Gandhi announced his entrance to politics and successfully contested the general elections held that year from Amethi, a seat that was earlier held by his father; he won again from the constituency in 2009 and 2014.

In March 2004, Gandhi announced his entry into politics by declaring that he would contest the 14th general elections from his father's former constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha, which is India's lower house of Parliament.

His mother had held the seat until she transferred to the neighbouring constituency of Raebareli.

When Gandhi made this announcement, it came as a surprise to political commentators who had perceived his sister Priyanka Gandhi as the more charismatic and probable successor.

It generated speculation that the presence of a young member of India's most famous political family would reinvigorate the Congress party's political fortunes among India's youthful population In his first interview with foreign media, Gandhi portrayed himself as an uniter of the country and condemned "divisive" politics in India, saying that he would try to reduce caste and religious tensions.

After being out of power for a record eight years, the Congress party returned to power winning a total of 145 seats, in the 2004 Indian general election.

Amidst calls from Congress party veterans for his greater involvement in party politics and national government, he was elected Congress vice-president in 2013, having served as the general secretary previously.

He led the Congress' campaign in the 2014 Indian general elections; the party suffered its worst electoral result in its history, winning only 44 seats compared to 206 seats won previously in the 2009 general election.

He is a member of the main opposition party, the Indian National Congress and was the party president from December 2017 to July 2019.

He is the chairperson of the Indian Youth Congress, the National Students Union of India and a trustee of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust.

He is the son of the former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi.

Born in New Delhi, Gandhi spent his early childhood between Delhi and Dehradun and stayed away from the public sphere for much of his childhood and early youth.

He received primary education in New Delhi and then attended The Doon School in Dehradun.

However, due to security concerns, he was later homeschooled.

Gandhi commenced his undergraduate degree at St. Stephen's College before moving to Harvard University.

In 2017, he succeeded his mother as Congress party leader and led the party into the 2019 Indian general election.

The party won 52 seats, failing to get 10% of the seats needed to claim the post of leader of the opposition.

After this poor performance in the election, he resigned as party leader and was succeeded by his mother, Sonia Gandhi, on an interim basis.