P V Narasimha Rao

In a stopgap move to bolster its fraying image, the party of slain Indian leader Rajiv Gandhi on Wednesday named a respected elder with little personal standing or ambition to lead it through next month's crucial election. The Congress-I Party's 18-member central Working Committee, meeting here in the capital, voted unanimously--as expected--to elect P. V. Narasimha Rao, a former foreign minister and 69-year-old party veteran, to succeed Gandhi as party president.