Rahul Gandhi is a four-term Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha and the Leader of Opposition. While his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is the general secretary for Uttar Pradesh in the AICC. Priyanka's landmark win in Wayanand by a significant margin in the Lok Sabha Polls means the entire Gandhi family now has seats in the parliament. While Rahul and Priyanka are in the Lok Sabha, their mother, Sonia Gandhi is in the Rajya Sabha.
It's true that the current 'Gandhi family' is comprised of only Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi. But it is because something happened on March 28, 1982, which caused two people of the Gandhi clan to leave the family. The two people we are talking about here are Maneka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi.
For the uninitiated, Indira Gandhi married Feroze Gandhi on March 26, 1942, and they welcomed two sons, Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi. While Rajiv married Sonia in 1968, Sanjay married Maneka in 1974. Unfortunately, on June 23, 1980, Sanjay Gandhi passed away while reportedly performing aerobatic manoeuvres while flying a Pitts S-2A plane.
It was a massive setback for the Gandhi family and especially for the 'Iron Lady', Indira Gandhi, who had won the elections five months before her son's unfortunate death. However, not everyone is aware of the fact that the evening before Sanjay Gandhi died, his wife, Maneka Gandhi, had warned him and even told her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, to stop him from flying that specific plane.
According to Sagarika Ghosh's book titled Indira: India's Most Powerful Prime Minister, Maneka Gandhi had warned her husband, Sanjay Gandhi, an evening before his death about the plane which crashed the next morning. Maneka and Sanjay rode the same plane an evening before the crash. After the ride ended, Maneka immediately went straight to her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi and told her strongly to stop Sanjay from flying that specific plane. She said:
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"Ma, I need you to tell Sanjay not to fly this plane. He can fly any plane he wants, but not this one."
Indira Gandhi understood her daughter-in-law, Maneka Gandhi's concern and told her son, Sanjay Gandhi, "Maneka's never been so strong about something. If she's saying na jao, toh na jao tum." However, Sanjay responded carefreely and told his mother there needed to be some minor changes and it would be fine. He took the same plane for the ride the next morning, and it crashed due to some technical issues. After Sanjay Gandhi's death, Maneka and Indira indulged in several conflicts.
Sanjay Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi embraced parenthood on March 13, 1980, and the little kid was just three months old when his father died in a plane crash. According to Kushwant Singh's autobiography, Indira Gandhi wanted to pass her family's political legacy to Rajiv Gandhi, who had no interest in politics back then. The decision created a rift between Maneka and Indira that increased to the point where they were unable to live under the same roof.
On March 28, 1982, Maneka Gandhi and Indira Gandhi got into a heated argument after the latter told her to pack her bags and move out of the Prime Minister's residence. According to Javier Moro's book, The Red Sari, Indira was furious after Maneka attended a meeting with late Sanjay Gandhi's supporters in Lucknow. The then-PM even stopped Maneka from having lunch with the rest of the family, and the entire feud went to another level. Maneka had called her sister, Ambika Shukla, and she left the PM residence with her three-month-old son, Varun Gandhi.
After leaving the Gandhi family, Maneka Gandhi raised her son, Varun Gandhi, single-handedly and even founded the Rashtriya Sanjay Manch with Akbar Ahmad. In 2004, Maneka Gandhi joined the BJP and won the election from the Pilibhit constituency. After some years, Varun Gandhi became an MP after winning the elections from Pilibhit.
In 2013, Varun Gandhi became the youngest General Secretary of the BJP at the age of 33. However, in recent years, Maneka and Varun have distanced themselves from the BJP, and reports are rife that the latter will join the Congress Party, ending their family clash once and for all. It is not known whether the speculations will end the Gandhi family's long-standing feud.
What do you think about the possibility of Varun Gandhi joining the Congress Party and ending the decade-long differences among the Gandhi family? Let us know.
Also Read: Sachin Pilot's Love Story: Inter-Religion Marriage, Father Didn't Attend Their Wedding, And Divorce
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