GURGAON, India (AP) — India's biggest political parties are vying to emulate and celebrate the political legacy of iconic independence leader Mahatma Gandhi on the 150th anniversary of his birth.

The two biggest parties — Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party — are trying to outdo each other in emulating and celebrating Gandhi, an anti-colonial icon who made Congress into a vehicle for the independence movement.

Congress, now the main opposition party, enjoyed decades of popularity after independence but suffered huge losses in the last two general elections. The BJP, the current governing party, promotes Hindu nationalism and won a landslide victory in this spring's polls.

While secular, social-democratic Congress seems like the natural heir, its recent weak leadership has allowed the BJP to co-opt Gandhi's legacy into its Hindu nationalist agenda.