Gandhi dynasty flounders 30 yrs after Indira killing

When Indira Gandhi was gunned down by her bodyguards on October 31, 1984, the instant elevation of her son Rajiv to the post of prime minister appeared to confirm her family's status as India's natural-born rulers.

But three decades on from the assassination of India's 'Iron Lady', even members of her Congress party are beginning to question whether they may now have to look beyond the Nehru-Gandhi clan for survival.

After a crushing defeat in May's general election, things hit a new low this month when Congress trailed in third place in two state polls with Rahul Gandhi -- the dynasty's latest scion -- having all but disappeared from view.

"Indira Gandhi was the real architect of the Congress party's expansion. She had the ability to directly speak to the masses across India and get votes," said Rasheed Kidwai, who has written several books on Congress.

"For the first time, instead of the party depending on the family, the family depends on it for its survival," he told AFP.

The centre-left Congress has ruled India for more than 50 of the 67 years since independence, while a member of the family has been at the helm of the party for all but a handful of those years.

Indira's father Jawaharlal Nehru was India's first prime minister from 1947 to 1964. Two years after his death, Indira became the premier from 1966 to 1977 and then again from 1980 before a grieving Rajiv then took up the mantle.

Such was the sympathy towards Rajiv that Congress recorded its best-ever showing in elections soon after he took office, reinforcing the notion that the family was destined to rule the world's largest democracy.

After Rajiv was assassinated in a Tamil suicide attack in 1991, Congress turned to his Italian-born widow Sonia who led the party back to power in a shock 2004 election victory.

She declined to become premier, installing the mild-mannered Manmohan Singh instead, but was seen as the power behind the throne until May's defeat after a lacklustre campaign led by her son Rahul.

While few within Congress speak out against the family, analysts say there can be no illusions about the scale of its troubles.

"It is defeated and directionless with a serious leadership crisis," Zoya Hasan, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, told AFP.

Rahul -- once described in a US diplomatic cable as "an empty suit" -- has shown no such appetite and likened power to "poison" before being persuaded to become Congress's election frontman.

For years, it seemed almost unthinkable that anyone but a Gandhi could lead Congress.

But asked recently if someone from outside the family could lead the party, former finance minister P Chidambaram told NDTV: "I think so... some day, yes."