Rahul Gandhi, the most eligible bachelor turns 48 on Tuesday. Being a member of one of the most prominent political families of the country, you can hate him or love him but you can’t ignore him. Here are some of the lesser known facts about the grandson of the first woman Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the son of Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi:
- Education
He has done his schooling from St. Columba’s school in New Delhi and The Doon School in Dehradun, his father’s alma mater. A major part of schooling was at home due to security reasons. He graduated from St Stephens to get his bachelor’s degree in History and moved to Harvard to complete his education. After his father’s assassination he moved back to India but later went on to study in Rollin’s College and did his M.Phil from Trinity College.
2. Before the ‘Political’ career
After graduation as every person joins a company, so did Gandhi, he joined a management consulting firm, a Monitor Group in London.
3. Political career
At present, he is the President of the Congress party and is the leader of Indian Youth Congress. Rahul’s first entry in active politics was in 2004 when he contested the Lok Sabha elections from his father’s constitution, Amethi. In 2007, he was appointed the Congress general secretary.
The 2014 general elections were Gandhi’s litmus test, but the incumbent Congress government faced a humiliating defeat as the BJP-led NDA claimed a landslide victory, winning 336 seats. The BJP won 282 seats by itself, the first time that a non-Congress party won a simple majority on its own and Narendra Modi was made the 14th Prime Minister.
Now 2019 General Elections are approaching and Rahul Gandhi will be the face of Congress party for the Prime Minister candidate.
4. An outspoken leader
He is an outspoken leader who puts his heart in front of the general public. Sometimes he fails but sometimes he has put right things in front of the people. After the Mumbai attacks, he commented that it is almost impossible to stop each and every terrorist attack but the terrorist attack should be dealt at the grass root level and once that is achieved it will be more helpful.
He took a dig at the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s much-touted Gujarat model of development. “People call us an elephant… We are not an elephant.. we are a beehive.. it’s funny but think about it. Which is more powerful? an elephant or a beehive?”
“We go into this model where you have the one guy who will come and fix everything. He is going to come on a horse, that’s the model, that’s the Indian model. He is going to come on the horse, the Sun is in the background. There are a billion people waiting. He is coming and everything is going to be fine. No. It’s not going to work like that.”
“People talk about individuals, a large number of problems can be sorted out by the lower level people. Give a billion people the power to solve a problem, it’ll be solved in a jiffy.”
5. Personal life
He is too secretive about his personal life, but in a press conference, he admitted having a girlfriend Veronique Cartelli who is a Spanish architect and lives in Venezuela.
6. He loves trekking!
7. Go Karting, love for Rahul Gandhi
Guess what Rahul Gandhi does in his free time? He drives about 25 km out of town, straddles a Yamaha R1 and roars off with a clutch of friends on a specially created — and carefully camouflaged — racing track. Every Saturday evening, a group of like-minded speed devils get together at this racing track to enjoy the thrills of power biking and go-karting. The secret is still well kept.
8. Aikido ace
Not everyone knows that Rahul Gandhi is a black belt in aikido, a Japanese martial art. “I am a black belt in Aikido – have you heard of it? But I don’t talk about it publicly. I do one hour of sports every day, though I admit I haven’t been doing much in the past three-four months,” he once said at a business event when Vijender commented that politicians rarely promoted or participated in sports.
9. The ‘Momo-Mia’ fan
You can’t imagine President of Congress, a serious politician enjoying a plate of steam momos, but Rahul Gandhi loves the hot plate of steam momos as much as you do and that is why he is the youth leader *wink wink*
10. The ‘bookworm’
Congress leader Digvijay Singh once said in an interview that Rahul Gandhi is a “voracious reader” and he likes reading Swami Vivekananda books.