The grand old party announced to organise different events in different states of the country to celebrate Rahul Gandhi’s birthday.
Mallikarjun Kharge, the current party president, took to the Twitter to wish Rahul. “Your unflinching commitment to Constitutional values and your indomitable courage in the face of adversity is admirable. May you continue speaking truth to power and be the voice of millions of Indians, while spreading the message of compassion and harmony,” he wrote.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar also sent Rahul birthday greetings via Twitter. “Your dedication and commitment to public service is truly inspiring,” he said, adding, “May this year bring you immense happiness, good health and more strength to bring positive change”.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also extended greetings to Rahul Gandhi saying, “Hearty congratulations and best wishes to Rahul Gandhi ji on his birthday. Wish you a healthy and long life. The Bihar CM has been engaged in bringing together the Opposition under one platform for the coming general elections.
The Nationalist Congress party supremo Sharad Pawar, another Congress ally and part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition in Maharashtra, wrote: “Best wishes to Congress leader Shri Rahul Gandhi on his birthday. Wishing him a healthy and happy life and success in all his future endeavours”.
Rahul Gandhi was born in Delhi, India, on June 19, 1970. He is a prominent member of the Indian National Congress (also known as the Congress Party) and a politician in India. He was born as a son to Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi’s grandson and Jawaharlal Nehru’s great-grandson, both of whom were Indian prime ministers. Sonia Gandhi, his mother, served as the backbone of the party after the passing of Rajiv Gandhi, and had considerable influence.
Right from his early life, Rahul Gandhi has tried to avoid the public eye. After Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984, he attended school at home. After attending Harvard University and St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, he transferred to Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, post the assassination of his father in 1991. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge with a bachelor’s degree in 1994 and a master’s degree the next year. After that, he worked for a consulting firm in the UK before returning to India and assisting in the establishment of a business in Mumbai.
Rahul Gandhi arrived in the political arena in 2004 when he was for the first time elected to Lok Sabha. After the contest in 2009, he remained in that position. He was made vice president of the Congress party in 2013. His party suffered a humiliating defeat to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in that election, as the Congress’s image had deteriorated by a series of corruption scandals. However, he was able to retain his seat in the Lok Sabha. Gandhi and his mother kept their leadership positions despite the Congress party’s poor poll performance.
He took over as leader of the Congress Party at the end of 2017 when Sonia Gandhi decided to step down as leader. As the fourth generation of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, he was criticized for being “elitist and dull” among other things. He was also criticized by members of the BJP and his own party for his outward display of devotion to Shiva, one of Hinduism’s most important deities.
However, he remained undeterred by electoral defeat in the last general elections and has remained steadfast on his principles and faith in the Constitution. By undertaking a countrywide 4080 km long Bharat Jodo yatra that lasted for 150 days, he has established his leadership qualities and contributed to a big extent in the winning of the Congress party in Karnataka assembly elections.
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