Joining Gen Z protesters and confronting the police are not what one might expect of the middle-aged scion of India’s most illustrious political dynasty. But for Rahul Gandhi, they could be the opportunity of a lifetime.
For years, Mr. Gandhi has struggled to find his footing in the treacherously shifting sands of Indian politics. Even as head of the largest opposition party, he has had difficulty being seen as more than just the great-grandson of India’s first prime minister and the grandson and son of two others.
At 56, he may have found his moment by rising to oppose the strongman-style politics of the current prime minister, Narendra Modi, and stand with the youth movement that has taken to the streets against what its leaders see as a threat to the world’s largest democracy.
Mr. Gandhi has long warned Indians that their rights were being dismantled. His message caught fire over the summer, after leaks of questions for a college-entrance exam resulted in its cancellation, igniting massive student protests that led to the resignation of India’s education minister. Weeks later Mr. Gandhi claimed further vindication after the deletion of 130 million names from registration records again fueled national outrage and demands for the removal of India’s chief election commissioner.
Neerja Chowdhury, an author and political commentator, said people are more receptive to his message because “dissatisfaction with the government is growing, there’s fatigue, there’s no new energy,” on top of which Mr. Modi tends to come down with a heavy hand.
As a result, Mr. Gandhi has “gained confidence,” she said.
The question is whether he can now propel his party, the Indian National Congress, to victory in India’s next general election in 2029 and end what by then would be a 15-yearlong grip on power by Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
A More Confident Approach
Yogendra Yadav, who has known Mr. Gandhi since 2007 and worked with him on campaigns, described him as “someone deeply interested in books, in ideas,” but “somewhat shy” and not a natural orator or a “gregarious extrovert,” which is why he can appear stilted and awkward onstage.
That made Mr. Gandhi a target for members of Mr. Modi’s party, who have mocked him as a “pappu,” or simpleton, and cast him as privileged and incompetent — an image that dogged him for years.
It didn’t help that his party started losing election after election more than a decade ago to the Hindu nationalist government led by Mr. Modi, and he himself lost the constituency once held by his father, Rajiv Gandhi, a former prime minister. (His grandmother, Indira Gandhi, was also prime minister; his great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was India’s first prime minister; and his mother, Sonia Gandhi, led the Congress Party for many years.)
In September 2022, Mr. Gandhi set out to turn his political fortunes around, literally step by step, when he embarked on a roughly 2,500-mile, 136-day journey on foot across the nation. Called the “Bharat Jodo Yatra,” or “Unite India Journey,” the walk was aimed at countering his image as elite and out-of-touch.
The journey appeared to pay off during the 2024 general election when Mr. Modi’s B.J.P. secured far fewer parliamentary seats than expected, forcing it to form a coalition government. Mr. Gandhi became the leader of the opposition.
Last year, when Mr. Gandhi’s party lost state elections in Maharashtra, he claimed that voter rolls had been manipulated just months beforehand, to the benefit of the B.J.P. He made similar claims about elections in the state of Bihar.
He stepped up his criticism of the Election Commission of India, an independent oversight body, accusing it of doing Mr. Modi’s bidding after it began a revision of voter lists a year ago that removed the 130 million names.
The commission said there was no political motive behind the deletions, which more heavily affected Muslims and other voters likely to oppose the B.J.P. But Mr. Gandhi cast them as a bid by the prime minister to hold onto power.
“Mr. Modi does not understand that the game is over,” Mr. Gandhi told a rally last weekend in the coastal city of Chennai.
Members of the governing party say Mr. Gandhi is going too far, taking up issues that may resonate with discontented youth but could alienate other voters.
The Congress Party is setting itself up for a “massive defeat,” Amit Shah, the home minister, told reporters. “Negative politics will not bring them any benefit.”
Rousing India’s Youth
At the rally in Chennai, Mr. Gandhi invited young people onstage to share their experiences. It was part of a campaign called “Chhatron Ki Goonj,” or “Voices of Youth,” which he began in June around the time that the Cockroach Janta Party, a Gen Z-led movement calling for political accountability, was beginning to grab attention.
One invitee spoke about a sister who killed herself when faced with the high-pressure medical school entrance exam. Another spoke about discrimination that she experienced as a Muslim and a woman.
“Smash the Patriarchy!” one of Mr. Gandhi’s slogans, resonated with Ritika Rachel Pravin, 18, a political science student at the rally. Hearing a leader say that “something like patriarchy should be broken in a nation like India” was “very refreshing,” she said.
Mr. Gandhi, who generally avoids one-on-one interviews and refused our multiple requests, has used social media as part of his rebrand. What he lacks in oratorial skills he makes up for in short videos that aim to mix humor with gravitas.
Mr. Gandhi dresses casually — he typically wears untucked polo shirts and chinos — and in an “Ask Me Anything” session on Instagram in August, he shared his fitness regimen (martial arts, swimming, running, strength training and yoga) and diet (high protein, low carbohydrate).
Social media posts have also shown Mr. Gandhi in acts of defiance. In July, when Mr. Gandhi and his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, also a Congress party member, staged a sit-in outside Mr. Modi’s official residence, photos of him being dragged away by the police went viral.
This month, images of him using his legs to push back against police officers trying to shove him inside a bus went viral, as did a video of him climbing up a yellow police barricade to avoid being captured by security forces.
The scenes of struggle have allowed Mr. Gandhi to score political points against Mr. Modi and the B.J.P., said Ashutosh Varshney, a professor of international studies at Brown University who studies South Asian politics.
“Now, will it be enough to unseat Modi? That remains wholly unclear,” Mr. Varshney said.
Heir to a Secular Legacy
To prepare for a showdown, Mr. Gandhi has tried to broaden his appeal with younger voters by presenting himself as the antithesis of the B.J.P.’s Hindu nationalist politics. He portrays himself as the defender of the secular principles enshrined in India’s Constitution — a copy of which he often brandishes during protests — and the heir to a party with roots that go back to resistance against British colonialism.
“He’s not just the leader of the opposition, but the figure in the opposition who will take on Modi,” said Ms. Chowdhury. “It’s Modi vs Rahul.”
This past Monday, Mr. Gandhi led a march to the Supreme Court in New Delhi, the capital of India, to protest the voter roll changes. He was accompanied by his sister and leaders of some of the roughly two dozen political parties that are part of a Congress-led coalition called the INDIA bloc. Neha Bora, a student who has become a breakout star of the youth protests, also joined.
It was another step toward what Mr. Gandhi has been trying to do: weave the youth protests and political opposition into a unified force, while being careful not to align with any one movement, such as the Cockroach Janta Party.
Congress, as the only national party in INDIA, was the natural leader to take on the B.J.P., which “has grown at the expense of virtually the entire political system,” said Dipankar Bhattacharya, who heads a regional bloc member.
Mr. Gandhi has called for putting aside differences within the opposition coalition to focus on what he says is the bigger threat: the “killing” of the democratic values at the heart of modern India’s identity.
“This battle is fought on multiple fronts,” perception, psychological, legal and political, he said at a news conference last Monday. “We are fighting on all fronts, and we are winning on all fronts.”
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