Asia | Weekend profile

Priyanka Gandhi: dynastic scion, and hope of India’s opposition

Poised to enter parliament, she may have bigger ambitions than that 

Priyanka Gandhi addresses a rally standing in front of an image of herself.
Photograph: Getty Images

JUST TWO years ago Priyanka Gandhi’s political career seemed to have hit a wall. The scion of India’s foremost political dynasty, whose father, grandmother and great-grandfather were all prime ministers, had been put in charge of the Congress party’s campaign for an election in Uttar Pradesh, or UP, the nation’s most populous state. It was her biggest job yet in the party. And she bombed: Congress won two seats in the state assembly in its worst-ever performance there. Not long afterwards, she resigned as the party’s leader in UP.

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