Rahul Gandhi is sixth Congress president from the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty

NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi, who was elevated to the post of Congress President on Monday, was the sixth from the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.

Rahul has been elected unopposed to the post and has taken over the party reins from his mother Sonia Gandhi, who was at the helm for 19 years.

Of the 15 people who led the 132-year-old party post-independence, six people belonged to the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty.

When Rahul takes over as the president on December 16, he will be the fifth Congress president post-independence and sixth pre-independence.

The Nehru-Gandhi clan was at the helm of affairs of the party after independence for 38 years. Nehru for three years, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi for eight years each, and Sonia Gandhi for a record 19 years.

The 47-year-old Gandhi will follow in the footsteps of his great-great-grandfather Motilal Nehru, great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, grandmother Indira Gandhi, father Rajiv Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi.

Long before independence, his great-great-grandfather, Motilal Nehru, headed the party, the first from the family to do so.

The party has been helmed by some illustrious people -- including Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabbhai Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, Abul Kalam Azad and Sarojini Naidu.