Parliament to host four Gandhis for the first time

NEW DELHI: It would be a record of sorts for the country's illustrious Nehru-Gandhi family when four of its members would be simultaneously occupying seats in the Lok Sabha, though in rival camps.

The 15th Lok Sabha will witness two mother-son duos of India's first political family representing two main political parties.

While Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul will be part of the ruling coalition, BJP leader Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun, the saffron party's latest firebrand discovery, will be seated on the Opposition benches.

This will be the first time four members of the family, albeit from its two estranged factions, will simultaneously be in the Lok Sabha that has for most part of its history seen at least one member of the Nehru-Gandhi clan.

The family debuted in parliament's lower house with the formidable Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, who occupied the seat from 1952 till the time of his death in 1964.

Nehru's son-in-law Feroz Gandhi gave him company for most of his years in the Lok Sabha. Gandhi, husband of Nehru's daughter Indira was an MP from Pratapgarh constituency in Uttar Pradesh from 1952 to 1960.