Rajiv Gandhi

Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi in 1988.
6th Prime Minister of India
In office 31 October 1984 – 2 December 1989
President	Zail Singh R. Venkataraman
Preceded by	Indira Gandhi
Succeeded by	V. P. Singh
Leader of the Opposition
In office 18 December 1989 – 23 December 1990
Prime Minister	V. P. Singh
Preceded by	Vacant
Succeeded by	L. K. Advani
President of the Indian National Congress
In office 1985–1991
Preceded by	Indira Gandhi
Succeeded by	P. V. Narasimha Rao
Member of Parliament for Amethi
In office 17 August 1981 – 21 May 1991
Preceded by	Sanjay Gandhi
Succeeded by	Satish Sharma
Personal details
Born	Rajiv Gandhi 20 August 1944 Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India (now Mumbai, Maharashtra, India)
Died	21 May 1991(1991-05-21) (aged 46) Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, India
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse(s)	Sonia Gandhi
Relations	See Nehru–Gandhi family
Children	Rahul Gandhi Priyanka Vadra
Parents	Feroze Gandhi Indira Gandhi
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge (dropout) Imperial College London (dropout)
Awards	Bharat Ratna (1991)

Rajiv Ratna Gandhi (ⁱ/ˈrɑːdʒiːv ˈɡɑːndiː/; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was the Prime Minister of India, serving from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, Prime Minister Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi, to become the youngest Indian Prime Minister at the age of 40.

Gandhi was a scion of the politically powerful Nehru–Gandhi family, which had been associated with the Indian National Congress party. For much of his childhood, his maternal grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister. Gandhi attended college in the United Kingdom. He returned to India in 1966 and became a professional pilot for the state-owned Indian Airlines. In 1968 he married Sonia Gandhi; the couple settled in Delhi to a domestic life with their children Rahul and Priyanka. For much of the 1970s, his mother was prime minister and his brother Sanjay (earlier Sanjiv) a MP; despite this, Rajiv Gandhi remained apolitical. After Sanjay's death in an aeroplane crash in 1980, Gandhi reluctantly entered politics at the behest of Indira. The following year he won his brother's Parliamentary seat of Amethi and became a member of the Lok Sabha—the lower house of India's Parliament. As part of his political grooming, Rajiv was made a general secretary of the Congress party and given significant responsibility in organising the 1982 Asian Games.