Congress Party wins Indian election

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared victory in India's national elections, saying voters had given the Congress party-led coalition a "massive mandate."



The elephant-like democracy staggers from its complex elections with a conclusion.



It's still early in the count, but the Congress have had a massive vote of confidence.

The leaders of India's Congress party have thanked the people for returning them to power with a "massive mandate".

Congress President Sonia Gandhi said they had made the "right choice" and PM Manmohan Singh vowed the party would "rise to the occasion".

Earlier the main opposition BJP and the Third Front conceded they had lost.

State television says Congress's alliance has won or is ahead in 263 seats, compared with the BJP's (154), the Third Front (60) and others (66).

With Sonia Gandhi in 2005. Photo: Simon Missiri



I lived over nine years in India and had the privilege of meeting many great Indian politicians including Indira Gandhi in 1975, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi in 2005-6, thanks to my good friend Murli Deora, the Minister for Petroleum, who introduced me to them.

With China being the largest country in the world, America the wealthiest, India the largest democracy ; India like the former Soviet Union, holds a crucial balance of power. CONGRATULATIONS INDIA





Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh greet the media prior to their meeting at her residence in New Delhi.

If you want to read more, I have pasted this information from Wikipedia about the amazing Gandhi family.



The Nehru-Gandhi family is an Indian political family which has been dominant in the Indian National Congress for most of India's early independent history. The name Gandhi is derived from Feroze Gandhi, the husband of Indira Gandhi (and not Mahatma Gandhi). The Nehru-Gandhi family is not related to Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.



Three members of the family (Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi) have been Prime Minister of India, two of whom (Indira and Rajiv Gandhi) have been assassinated. A fourth member of the family, Sonia Gandhi, is currently Congress President, while her and Rajiv's son, Rahul Gandhi, is the youngest member of the family to enter active politics when he contested and won a seat in the lower house of the Parliament of India in 2004.





The rise of Sonia Gandhi

Arun Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi's cousin, was Minister for Power and then Minister for Internal Security in Rajiv Gandhi's government, but later defected to the rival Janata Dal.



After Rajiv Gandhi's death, the Congress was led by P. V. Narasimha Rao, who became Prime Minister. After his defeat in India's 1996 General Elections, the power in the Congress party shifted to Sitaram Kesri, an aging loyalist of Indira Gandhi. During this period, Sonia kept herself and her children out of the public limelight, not wanting them to face the fate of her husband and mother-in-law.



The party loyalists always wanted a member of the Nehru- Feroz Gandhi family to lead the party, as its fortunes slipped in elections around the nation. Despite her reluctance, Sonia Gandhi was eventually persuaded to become active in the Congress Party, and she quickly became its center of power, forcing Kesri's resignation and allowing her uncontested assent to the party's Presidency in 1998.



The following period saw her becoming increasingly visible in politics (She is attributed to engineering the downfall of the Vajpayee government in 1999, in an unsuccessful attempt to install a Congress government). During India's 2004 General Elections, Sonia was projected the Congress's Prime Ministerial candidate, and the party and its allies emerged as the largest group in the Lok Sabha, with the Communist parties supporting the coalition from outside. Initially, every coalition partner and the Communist parties had accepted her as the Prime Minister. The opposition BJP held nationwide protests against a 'foreigner' ascending the Prime Minister's post.



On May 18, 2004, Sonia Gandhi declined the Prime Ministerial position, passing it on to Dr. Manmohan Singh. At these elections Rahul Gandhi was elected to the Parliament for the first time, representing a fifth generation of the family in politics from a traditional Gandhi stronghold, Amethi (Uttar Pradesh). Her daughter, Priyanka Vadra, did not contest the elections, but campaigned for the party. Many Congress leaders and supporters have vocally promoted her future as the party's leader, but she has not accepted a life in active politics, so far.



THE NEXT PRIME MINISTER



Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka managed their mother's campaign for reelection to Rae Bareilly in 2006, which was won easily with a margin greater than 400,000 votes.



He was a prominent figure in a high profile Congress campaign for the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections; Congress, however, won only 22 seats with 8.53% of votes. The election saw the Bahujan Samaj Party, which represents low caste Indians, to become the first party to govern in its own right in Uttar Pradesh for 16 years.[18]



Rahul Gandhi was appointed a general secretary of the All India Congress Committee on 24 September 2007 in a reshuffle of the party secretariat. In the same reshuffle, he was also given charge of the Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India.[20]



In his attempt to prove himself as a youth leader in November 2008 he held interviews at his 12, Tughlak Lane residence in New Delhi to handpick at least 40 people who will make up the think-tank of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), an organisation that he has been keen to transform since he was appointed general secretary in September 2007.



Senior Congress leaders such as Pranab Mukherjee, Digvijay Singh and Arjun Singh have raised calls for Rahul Gandhi to be the candidate for Prime Minister. It is felt because of his young age and clean image, he would be able to connect with the youth of India who form the majority of the population.



Having met all the current Gandhi politicians, I believe Priyanka is the most able of them and we will see her develop her talents in the years to come. She is very much like her Grandmother Indira in many respects, but it is more likely Rahul will be the next Prime Minister, should Manmohan Singh decline or retire from position.

Meeting with Sonia Gandhi

Sonia on the left, and a clean-shaven Bob on the right

"Life is meeting," wrote Sir John Hunt. When you work for a major humanitarian organisation, you get opportunities to meet famous people. Some you remember vividly, others you forget. The four that stand out in my mind are Indira Gandhi, Bill Clinton, Sonia Gandhi and President Karzi, President of Afghanistan.

I met Bill Clinton in Ahmedabad, India after the huge earthquake that affected Gujarat. He was in a very relaxed mood when he joined a group of us to discuss how his new organisation could help the affected people. His inquiring mind, pithy questions and ability to quickly distill the key facts from a barrage of people trying to impress him, were the qualities I remember.

Purely by chance, I met Indira Gandhi in March 1975, as a young man en route to Nepal from Vietnam. I had a 24 hour stop in Delhi and sadly, Padmaji Naidu died just before my arrival. She had been a mentor to Indira Gandhi and had a huge influence on her life. As Padmaji was President of the Indian Red Cross, Indira wanted someone from the Geneva headquarters to attend. As I was coincidentally passing through Delhi, I was met and whisked away to buy white clothing, the colour for mourning in India. A few hours later I arrived at the funeral service and Indira Gandhi took me by the hand, thanked me for coming, and I was next to her throughout the ceremony.

Sonia Gandhi was different from her Mother in Law. More reserved and part of a dynasty which has fascinated India and the world for over 75 years. I met her on the 10th of May 2005.

It was with a sense of awe I waited with my colleagues in the ante-chamber that had photos of Sonia's late husband Rajiv Gandhi, his Mother Indira, and her father Nehru. There was a touching family photo of Sanjay and Rajeev Gandhi wearing shorts with their Mother Indira, and Grandfather Nehru. The only photo that was not part of the dynasty, but a key figure in Indian history, Mahatma Gandhi.

We were invited into a huge library and this very attractive lady, immaculately dressed in a blue Shalwar, warmly welcomed us. Books lined every wall and there were four large models of sailing ships on top of the book shelves. I recognised one as an "East Indiaman" which carried tea from India to Great Britain. My good friend Murli Deora, the then Vice President of the Indian Red Cross and now Minister of Petroleum, told her about the extensive work the Red Cross had done for those affected by the earthquake in Gujarat some years earlier, and the work we were doing then for the victims of the Tsunami. She showed deep knowledge of the Red Cross. After a group discussion with her, I had a one to one talk with her about the work her daughter was doing with a young Afghan friend of mine, for slum dwellers in Delhi. She smiled, as only a mother can, with pride, when hearing about her daughter. She came cross as caring, deeply concerned and warm.

I met her daughter Priyanka twice. She is a remarkably strong and focussed young women. We were discussing ways she could help promote the work of the Red Cross in South Asia.

Hamed Kazai, President of Afghanistan is another man that leaves a strong impression on you. I met him in mid 2003 in Kabul. A humble man with a huge responsibility on his shoulders as he tries to bring some semblance of stability to a war-torn country. Tall, handsome, dignified and sharp, he speaks with conviction and clarity on the future of his country.