Rahul Gandhi, the scion of India's most fabled political dynasty, will within weeks be crowned leader of the Congress party, handing him a freer rein to prove if he can mount a credible challenge to the dominance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The great-grandson of India's founding prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, has struggled to convince voters - and many in his party - that he is leadership material, especially after a drubbing in the 2014 general election.
Modi's depiction of the 47-year-old as an undeserving "prince" has helped sideline Gandhi since the last national vote, during which time Congress has suffered some of its worst ever local election results.
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But this year the economy has stumbled, and Congress politicians hope a round of state elections, beginning in Modi's home state of Gujarat, offer them - and their leader - a shot at revival ahead of the next national poll in 2019.
Gandhi will soon take over as Congress president from his 70-year-old mother, Sonia Gandhi, a symbolic promotion that three Congress officials said they hoped would free his hand to shift the narrative from a clash of personalities - which Modi has so far resoundingly won - to a debate about policies.
"You will see many changes and every change will be a reaffirmation of what Congress's core beliefs are," said party MP and senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, who works closely with Rahul Gandhi.
"The right time has come to strike a chord with the masses against Modi's governance style, and we will not miss it."
Rahul's father, grandmother and great-grandfather were all prime ministers in post-independence India. But critics deride Gandhi as a political lightweight who depends on his family name for power.
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