In a campaign led by Rahul Gandhi the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Indian prime ministers the Indian National Congress party suffered the most crushing defeat in its 128-year history Friday as the results of India's general election were released.



The BJP seized on the perception that Rahul Gandhi was little more than a crown prince awaiting his prize.



Voters were furious over Congress' inability to address corruption, unemployment and the sputtering economy.



The electoral drubbing is a massive comedown for the Gandhi family and a shift in India's tradition-bound society.



The family patriarch was Jawaharlal Nehru, a hero of the struggle for independence from British rule who became India's first prime minister, leading the country from 1947 until his death in 1964.



Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, later took power, followed by her son Rajiv. Both were killed in political assassinations. Rajiv's Italian-born widow, Sonia, then took over the Congress party, becoming India's most powerful politician and setting the stage for her son, Rahul, to eventually take up the family mantle.



The family is not related to Mohandas Gandhi, India's independence leader who was also a senior member of Congress.



Rahul Gandhi, the dimpled, 43-year-old family scion, had been presented to voters as a youthful leader who could rejuvenate India's faltering economy, but many saw him as privileged, aloof and out of touch with everyday Indians.



Congress, in power since India's independence for all but 10 years, never even formally declared Gandhi as its candidate for prime minister, political maneuvering aimed at protecting him from being scapegoated if the party and the family were to be voted out.



During the punishing election campaign, Modi seized on the charges of nepotism aimed at Congress, at one point telling a crowd of supporters: "No one can save this mother-son government now."



Even in the Amethi constituency, considered a Gandhi stronghold, loyalties were wavering during the campaign.



During his campaign, Rahul Gandhi has tried to whip up some fire into his speeches, but the crowds appeared far from impressed. In many ways, he was overshadowed by his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a stay-at-home mother who addressed party workers and public rallies with ease and a comfort level that many have compared to that of her grandmother, Indira.



The last time the family faced such a serious challenge was in the 1980s, when then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's government lost the 1989 elections, mainly due to charges that Swedish gun manufacturer Bofors AB paid bribes to supply Howitzer field guns to the Indian army.



Despite the Gandhi family's waning popularity, it is premature to count them out entirely. The family, which has been likened to India's version of the British monarchy or America's Kennedy dynasty, is a subject of fascination in India. And the Gandhis' message of lifting the country's impoverished masses resonates deeply with many.