In 1969, Indira Gandhi had turned a presidential election into a game-changer in her favour. She got her own nominee, V V Giri, elected at th cost of the official candidate of the Congress “Syndicate”, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. That established her supremacy in the party. Today, her daughter-in-law faces an equally crucial presidential election in July. What is different this time around, however, is that Sonia Gandhi will need to get her party’s nominee, whoever that is, elected in order to keep the party-led government afloat till 2014.