World | India
Rahul's wedding plans trigger gossip
A frenzy of excited gossip has burst out over a casually tossed out remark by Rahul Gandhi, who is being groomed to lead the ruling Congress Party.
- By Amrit Dhillon, Correspondent
- Published: 01:18 September 30, 2008
New Delhi: A frenzy of excited gossip has burst out over a casually tossed out remark by Rahul Gandhi, who is being groomed to lead the ruling Congress Party.
He said "I will get married soon" during a recent tour of Punjab in north India.
Rahul, 38, is the country's most eligible bachelor owing to the iconic status of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty of which he is the latest descendant.
Son of Italian born Sonia Gandhi, Congress Party president and widow of the assassinated former prime minister Rajiv, his fresh-faced, dimpled good looks and earnest manner have made him a prize catch for many a socially ambitious mother.
The latest flutter over Rahul was sparked by a Press Trust of India report that, when asked by giggling female college students in the small town of Bhatinda what his marriage plans were, he replied that while politics was currently a priority, "I will get married soon".
'Lucky' woman
When the girls started asking who the "lucky" woman was, Rahul's aides hastily bundled him into a car and sped off in a cloud of dust. As the latest member of a family that has led India for generations - his father Rajiv, grand-mother Indira, and great-grandfather Jawarharlal were prime ministers - Rahul's choice of wife is fraught with political significance.
Some observers say that he may have to choose between his private wishes and his public duty.
Known as the "crown prince" of Indian politics because his party wants him to be the next prime minister, Rahul has made no secret of his relationship with a Hispanic woman he fell in love with while studying at Cambridge.
But such is the dearth of information around the dynasty that neither her name nor her nationality were clearly established until recently. Her name is apparently Veronique and she is not, as originally reported, Colombian or Venezuelan, but Spanish.
It's not clear whether Veronique is still Rahul's girlfriend. Indian gossip columnists have been suggesting that they have broken off and that he is seeing an Indian Brahmin girl with a view to an arranged marriage.
But no one, even in the top echelons of the Congress Party, knows for sure.
Rahul, his mother and younger sister Priyanka, do not share any private matters with anyone.
The Congress Party is divided on the impact of Rahul's matrimonial decision on its fortunes. One section of it is wary that, with a foreigner as his mother, it would be too much for Rahul's wife to be a foreigner too.
"It would be a lot for the party to stomach. With one foreign tag already, the party wouldn't want to add to this by having yet another foreigner [in the form of] Rahul's wife," said a Congress Party leader who did not wish to be named.
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