Sonia Gandhi, who stepped down as Congress president in 2017, was the longest-serving president of the country's oldest political party Indian National Congress. She was succeeded by her son Rahul Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi was born on December 9, 1946, to Stefano Maino, a building mason, and Paola Maino. She grew up Roman Catholic in Orbassano, a small town in Italy, with her sisters Nadia and Anoushka. In 1964, she went to Cambridge in England to study English, where she came across Rajiv Gandhi, who was studying engineering. The two fell in love, and in 1968, got married in a Hindu ceremony. Sonia then moved into the household of her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, entering the world of limelight, intrigue, and often, violence, that was India’s politics.
It was around 25 years ago that Sonia Gandhi first became the Congress president. When the reluctant politician first took over the reins of the party in 1998, the Congress was in disarray — two of its ‘natural’ leaders assassinated within a decade, fresh from a Lok Sabha election loss, and facing infighting and defections. It was in power in just three states: Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Mizoram. Under her, the party would go on to win two General Elections back to back and rule as many as 16 states at one point in the 2000s, before embarking on the ignominious slide since 2014.
Sonia became a member of the Congress party only in 1997 — at the plenary in Calcutta. In the 1998 polls, Congress won 141 seats, one more than the last time’s tally. Within months, Sonia was elected Congress president, Sitaram Kesri removed in a bloodless coup.
Not everyone was happy with her advancement though. In May 1999, three senior leaders, Sharad Pawar, PA Sangma, and Tariq Anwar, raised the issue of Sonia’s foreign origins. Sonia promptly offered to step away, there was a flood of support for her, and the row ended with the formation of the Nationalist Congress Party and the cementing of Sonia’s position. While Sonia’s initial foray into the political arena saw her read out speeches in a heavily accented Hindi, over the years, she eventually came to dominate not just the Congress, but the Indian political scene.
The Iran conflict needs to be viewed in the wider regional and geostrategic context. In times of such conflicts, it is not enough to be neutral; it is also necessary to be seen to be impartial
Sonia, who generally doesn’t sign too many mentions, signed the form to express her “association” with the Zero Hour mention of Brittas, leaving many surprised in both the parties.
Speaking to The Indian Express in the evening, the survivor said the development “will only make things worse for victims who decide to take on the mighty”.
Opposition party believes it has a better chance of bringing other anti-BJP parties on board over this issue and that the BJP will be more vulnerable to a well-articulated critique on a livelihood issue.
National Herald Case Update: The probe agency said that adding words to the ‘scheduled offence’ by the trial court to mean ‘scheduled offence only registered by a law enforcement agency’ is "impermissible" and amounts to "judicial legislation".
Opposition parties, led by Congress MPs Sonia Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, on Wednesday staged a protest at the Gandhi statue in the Parliament complex, demanding a discussion over the border issue with China.
Sonia Gandhi arrived in Mysuru on Monday and offered prayers at a temple in the H D Kote Assembly segment on Wednesday on the occasion of Vijayadashami.
Congress interim president & MP Sonia Gandhi leads protest of party MPs against inflation and unemployment, in Parliament. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)
Before Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi had been summoned by the ED for questioning in the National Herald case. Then, too, the Congress had staged protests.
Leaders like Narendra Modi, JP Nadda, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati, Nitish Kumar and many more celebrate the 131st birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb BR Ambedkar.
The Budget Session of Parliament was curtailed by a day on the request of Opposition leaders, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said on Thursday, while asserting that the government was ready to conclude the session on the last day.
Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress Wednesday appointed Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as general secretary of Uttar Pradesh East. She will take charge in the second week of February.
This week we look at how UP got to a place where mob violence that spiralled out of
control got a police officer killed, why the extradition of Christian Michel is a political hot potato &
how a WhatsApp video ruined a woman’s life in Kerela.
Presenting former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh with the 2017 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, disarmament & development, UPA Chairperson appeared to take a dig at the current dispensation through her praise for Dr Singh.
Union Minister Uma Bharti has said that leaders across party lines must come together and sort out the Ayodhya dispute through dialogue. She also said that those in the government want to build a temple at the disputed site but will need support from
“The party’s victory will be the nation’s victory, it will be the victory for each one of us. Congress is not a political term, it is a movement,” Sonia Gandhi said.
New Delhi, Feb 25 (ANI): Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday targeted the Congress, saying that the grand old party, which has been tolerated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for so many decades, should also tolerate the saffron party for at least ten years. Naidu said that the Congress was unnecessarily targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said unlike past governments where the prime minister (Manmohan Singh) presides and madam (Sonia Gandhi) decides, the BJP-led Government was working collectively in which Prime Minister Modi presides and the team decides.
New Delhi, Feb 15 (ANI): Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Monday rubbished Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah’s comment on the Jawaharlal Nehru University row, saying he did not have the stature to lecture Congress president Sonia Gandhi or vice president Rahul Gandhi on the issue of nationalism. Sibal said instead of dealing with the university students in the way that they should be dealt with, the BJP was busy proving that they were criminals. Sibal further stated that India is no more under British rule and added that Amit Shah and PM Modi cannot stop these young children from speaking their minds.
New Delhi, Feb 12 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Friday refused to quash the trail court proceedings against the five Congress leaders but exempted party president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi from personal appearance. Senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Sighvi, who is fighting the Herald case for Gandhi’s, expressed his delight and said that it is a big relief for the family, as every inference and conclusion in the High Court has been rendered inoperative. He further added that every point argued in the High Court has been left open for them by the apex court to argue again at the stage of framing charges.
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