After a long wait Priyanka Gandhi, the sister of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, finally plunged into the political scene. Recently, she has been appointed as the All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary of Eastern UP region, which comprises the Lok Sabha constituencies of Prime Minister Narendra modi i.e. Varanasi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh i.e. Lucknow. The region also includes Gorakhpur which is considered a strong hold of incumbent CM of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath.
Targeting Congress’ dynastic politics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing Maharashtra workers, said “For some parties, the family is the party. For the BJP, the party is the family.”
But the question that arises in one’s mind is whether dynastic politics are only limited to the Congress? There has been a popular perception among the masses that Congress is the only party in the Indian state that enjoys dynastic politics. But is it true?
Here is a list of some politicians from different political parties who come from political families:
1. Jayant Sinha (Minister of State for Civil Aviation) is the son of former finance minister Yashwant Sinha.
2. BY Ragavendra (MP) son of former CM of Karnataka BS Yeddyurappa.
3. Pankaj Singh who is the General Secretary of BJP in UP is the son of Rajnath Singh.
4. Rajveer Singh, the MP from Etah, is the son of Kalyan Singh, who is the former CM of UP.
5. Sandeep Singh, the son of above-mentioned Rajveer Singh, is the current Minister of State for Education in UP.
6. Vasundhara Raje, the former CM of Rajasthan, is the daughter of Vijaya Raje Scindia who was elected to both the houses with a BJP ticket.
7. Dushyant Singh Raje, son of Vasundhara Raje, has continued the dynasty chain in BJP.
8. Akhilesh Yadav, former CM of UP and current chief of Samajwadi Party (SP) is the son of Mulayam Singh Yadav, former union minister and chief minister of UP.
9. Akash Anand is the nephew of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati.
10. Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar is the son of former union minister and former chief minister of Bihar Lalu Prasad Yadav.
11. KT Rama Rao, a Telangana minister is the son of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao
12. Uddhav Thackeray is the son of late Bal Thackeray who was the chief of Shiv Sena.
According to research by Indian Express, BJP fielded more dynasts in assembly elections of 2018 than Congress did.
So, almost every party plays “dynastic politics” and one could say that ‘nepotism’ is not only confined to Bollywood but also propagates in politics.