Congress party completes 128 years. The Indian National Congress was founded on this day in 1885 and had ruled for most of India's 65 years of independence from Britain.
For decades after Jawaharlal Nehru, Rahul's great-grandfather, delivered his stirring "tryst with destiny" speech on the eve of independence from Britain 65 years ago, the Gandhi family has dominated politics in the world's biggest democracy.
The succession of prime ministers and Congress party leaders from the family echoed the right to rule of an English monarchy. And the assassinations of Nehru's daughter Indira when she was prime minister in 1984 and grandson Rajiv as he campaigned for elections in 1991 brought an air of tragic glamour akin to that of America's Kennedy clan.
