Rao was wise to be cautious. Seven years earlier, Pranab Mukherjee had broken the queue when prime minister Indira Gandhi was killed, setting himself up as successor. For the sin of a commoner claiming a dynastic right, Pranab was sent to the back of the line. He was only now being rehabilitated. The same Family right was being reasserted, as Rao heard ‘the loud slogans and shouts of some fellows on the road, asking for Sonia Gandhi to be made C.P’. Rao realized he was being upstaged. ‘The picture was complete in my mind.’
Post Rajiv's death : the clamouring for power
