Gandhi, Sanjay (1946-1980), was an Indian politician whose mother, Indira Gandhi, and elder brother, Rajiv Gandhi, were both prime ministers of India. Sanjay Gandhi was influential during the state of emergency between 1975 and 1977. It was widely assumed that he would take over the leadership of the Congress Party, and of India’s government, after Indira Gandhi’s retirement. Sanjay Gandhi was active in the Youth Congress wing of the party. He was heavily involved in government campaigns for birth control and the clearance of slums and often drew criticism for his policies. He was a Congress candidate in the general elections of 1977, but he failed to win a seat in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament. He did, however, win a seat in 1980, the only time he held an elected office. He died on June 23, 1980, in an airplane crash.
Sanjay Gandhi was born in New Delhi on Dec. 14, 1946. He was educated at the Doon School in Dehra Dun, in what is now Uttarakhand, and at St. Columba’s School, in Delhi. In the 1970’s, he ran Maruti, a company that developed a small car for production in India.
