The leader of India's opposition Congress party, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, yesterday attended a prayer meeting in New Delhi for her late husband, Rajiv. The occasion was, as her party minders pointed out, a highly symbolic one. Rajiv Gandhi, who would have been 55 on Friday, was prime minister of India from 1984 until he was assassinated in 1991. Mrs Sonia Gandhi, contesting next month's parliamentary election, hopes to inherit his mantle.
Taking advantage of an electoral rule which allows candidates to run in up to 10 districts, Mrs Gandhi (52) has registered in two constituencies, one northern and one southern. It was a tactic employed by her mother-in-law, prime minister Indira Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1984.
The Congress president has filed nomination papers in the Bellary constituency of Karnataka state in the south (traditionally a safe Congress seat) and in Amethi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Amethi is the constituency which her late husband represented.
Her critics say Mrs Gandhi, trailing the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, in opinion polls, lacks confidence and is hedging her bets by contesting two seats.
"Not so," says one of her advisers. "She is simply making the point that she is pan-Indian, that she is of the south and of the north."
In fact, she is of neither region, having been born in a small town near Turin in Italy. She met her future husband while she was a language student in England.
She has dismissed the opinion polls, saying she is "absolutely" optimistic about her party's prospects in the elections. In an interview broadcast on Indian television yesterday, she said she has no intention of returning to Italy and will remain in Indian politics.
There has been speculation that her son, Rahul, a consultant in London, will return to India to campaign alongside his mother.