Sonia Gandhi is an Indian politician. She is the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress,a social democratic political party,which has governed India for most of its post-independence history. She took over as the party leader in 1998,seven years after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi,her husband and a former Prime Minister of India,and remained in office until 2017 after serving for twenty-two years. She returned to the post in 2019 and remained the President for another three years.
Rahul Rajiv Gandhi is an Indian politician. A member of the Indian National Congress (INC),he is currently serving as the 12th Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and as the member of the Lok Sabha for Rae Bareli,Uttar Pradesh,since June 2024. He previously represented the constituency of Wayanad,Kerala,from 2019 to 2024,and Amethi,Uttar Pradesh,from 2004 to 2019. Gandhi served as the party president of the Indian National Congress from December 2017 to July 2019 and 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 a member of the Nehru–Gandhi political family.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is an Indian politician and a general secretary of the All India Congress Committee. She is the daughter of former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi,sister of Rahul Gandhi,and granddaughter of Feroze and Indira Gandhi,making her a member of the politically prominent Nehru-Gandhi family.
Amethi is a city situated in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Gauriganj is the administrative headquarters of the Amethi district. This district is a part of Ayodhya division in the Awadh region of the state. Amethi was 72nd district of Uttar Pradesh which came into existence on 1 July 2010 by merging three tehsils of the erstwhile Sultanpur district namely Amethi,Gauriganj and Musafirkhana and two tehsils of the erstwhile Raebareli district,namely,Salon and Tiloi. The town is part of the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency and Amethi Assembly constituency,which became reputed as a stronghold of the Indian National Congress party. The Congress leaders belonging to Nehru-Gandhi family won several elections from Amethi during 1980–2014. In 2019,Smriti Irani of Bhartiya Janta Party won this seat. Irani was defeated in 2024 by Kishori Lal Sharma of Indian National Congress.
Smriti Zubin Irani is an Indian politician and former actress,fashion model and television producer. She was Minister of Women and Child Development from 2019 to 2024,and also Minister of Minority Affairs from 2022 to 2024. She previously served as Minister of Human Resource Development,Minister of Textiles,and Minister of Information and Broadcasting. She was the youngest minister in prime minister Narendra Modi's second ministry in 2019.
Feroze Varun Gandhi is an Indian politician who has been a three time Member of Parliament for Lok Sabha from the Pilibhit constituency. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and was inducted into Rajnath Singh's team in March 2012 as General Secretary. He belongs to the Nehru–Gandhi family,which has occupied a prominent place in the politics of India since a time before the country's independence in 1947.
Although India is a parliamentary democracy,the country's politics has become dynastic or with high level of nepotism,possibly due to the absence of party organizations,independent civil-society associations which mobilize support for a party,or centralized financing of elections. The dynastic phenomenon is present at the national,state,regional,and district level. The Nehru–Gandhi family has produced three Indian prime ministers,and family members have largely led the Congress party since 1978. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also has several dynastic leaders. In addition to the major national parties,other national and regional parties such as Shiromani Akali Dal,Shiv Sena,Samajwadi Party,Rashtriya Janata Dal,Janata Dal Secular,Jharkhand Mukti Morcha,Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam,Kerala Congress,Jammu &Kashmir National Conference,Indian Union Muslim League,AIMIM,and the Nationalist Congress Party are all dominated by families,mostly those of the party founders.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is an Indian politician who served as the leader of the Indian National Congress in the 17th Lok Sabha and from 2019 to 2024 and the Member of Parliament from Berhampore from 1999 to 2024. He served as the president of West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) following the demise of Somendra Nath Mitra from 2020 to 2024 and previously from 2014 to 2018,Chairperson of Public Accounts Committee since 2019,Minister of State of Railways from 2012 to 2014 and the member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from 1996 to 1999.
Satish C. Sharma was an Indian politician. He represented the Indian National Congress party,and was a former member of the Union Cabinet in the Government of India. Sharma's political career was boosted by his closeness to both Rajiv Gandhi,and after his assassination,his wife and the de facto political power center of the Congress party,Sonia Gandhi. He held seats in the Lok Sabha at the behest of both the Nehru - Gandhi family and the electorate.
Rae Bareli is one of the 80 Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is considered to be a bastion of the Indian National Congress. From 1967 to 1977,the seat was held by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi,and from 2004 until her appointment to the Rajya Sabha in 2024,by Sonia Gandhi.
Amethi is one of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. This constituency covers the entire Amethi district and was created in 1967. Like its neighboring constituency Rae Bareli,it is considered to be a bastion of the Indian National Congress. Its first member of parliament (MP) was Vidya Dhar Bajpai of the Indian National Congress (INC) who was elected in 1967 and held his seat in the next election in 1971. In the 1977 election,Ravindra Pratap Singh of the Janata Party became its MP. Singh was defeated in 1980 by Sanjay Gandhi of the INC. Later the same year,Gandhi died in a plane crash. This forced a by election in 1981 which was won by his brother,Rajiv Gandhi. Gandhi went on to represent this constituency until 1991,when he was assassinated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The subsequent by election held the same year was won by Satish Sharma of the INC. Sharma was re-elected in 1996. Sanjaya Sinh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) defeated Sharma in the 1998 election. The widow of Rajiv Gandhi,Sonia Gandhi represented this constituency from 1999 to 2004. Her son,Rahul Gandhi,was elected in 2004. He was the fourth MP from the Nehru–Gandhi family since 1980 to represent the seat. Gandhi held the seat till the 2019 election when he was defeated by a margin of 55,000 votes by the BJP's Smriti Irani. Irani was defeated in 2024 by a margin of over 1.67 lakh votes by Kishori Lal Sharma of the Indian National Congress.
The Nehru–Gandhi family is an Indian political family that has occupied a prominent place in the politics of India. The involvement of the family has traditionally revolved around the Indian National Congress,as various members have traditionally led the party. Three members of the family—Jawaharlal Nehru,Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi—have served as the prime minister of India,while several others have been members of parliament (MP).
Haryana Janhit Congress was a state political party in the state of Haryana,India. It was started as a breakaway faction of the Indian National Congress by former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal in 2007. The party forged an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the 2014 parliamentary elections.
Sanjaya Sinh,also known as Sanjay Singh,is an Indian politician and a former member of the Rajya Sabha. He was twice elected to the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh during the 1980s and held state ministerial posts. In 1990,he became a member of the upper house of the Parliament of India,which is known as the Rajya Sabha,and in 1998 he was elected to the lower house,called the Lok Sabha. His term in the 12th Lok Sabha session lasted until the following year. Subsequently,in 2009,he was successful in obtaining a second term in that house as a member of the 15th Lok Sabha representing the Sultanpur constituency of Uttar Pradesh. He represented the state of Assam in the Rajya Sabha. He resigned from Rajya Sabha and Indian National Congress to join Bharatiya Janata Party on 30 July 2019.
Amethi is one of the 75 districts of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. This district is a part of Ayodhya division in the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh. It covers an area of 2,329.11 km2. Gauriganj is the administrative headquarters of the district.
Ratanjit Pratap Narain Singh or R. P. N. Singh,is an Indian politician and former Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs. He was the Member of Parliament for Kushinagar constituency in the fifteenth Lok Sabha from 2009 to 2014. In the 2014 General Election,despite an increase in his own votes,he was defeated by Rajesh Pandey (BJP). He lost again in 2019. In September 2020,Singh was chosen for AICC in charge of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
The Indian National Congress (INC) is one of the two major political parties in India. The prominent members of the party are the president Sonia Gandhi,vice-president Rahul Gandhi,former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Priyanka Gandhi. INC took part in the elections alongside other members of the United Progressive Alliance. On the fourth anniversary of the second United Progressive Alliance government,the INC announced that its campaign for the election would be led by Prime minister Manmohan Singh,party chairperson Sonia Gandhi,and general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
To constitute India's 17th Lok Sabha,general elections were held in April–May 2019. The results were announced on 23 May 2019. The main contenders were two alliance groups of the Incumbent BJP leading National Democratic Alliance and the Opposition United Progressive Alliance and Indian National Congress respectively. The 2019 Indian general election was the largest democratic exercise in history at the time it was conducted,with around 912 million eligible voters.
The 2024 Indian general election was held in Uttar Pradesh in seven phases from 19 April to 1 June to elect 80 members of the 18th Lok Sabha,with the results declared on 4 June. Bypolls for Dadraul,Lucknow East,Gainsari,and Duddhi assembly constituencies were held alongside this election.
The 2024 Indian general election was held in Punjab on 1 June 2024 to elect 13 members of the 18th Lok Sabha.
