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Sonia Gandhi: The widow, the leader and now the mother

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Sonia Gandhi has been the longest serving president of All India Congress Committee (AICC) since 1998. Her journey and rise through the corridors of power have been debated upon and termed 'prolific'. From being almost a no one in Italy to being one of the powerful politicans in the world, Sonia has become a world famous personality.    

In his recent book 'The accidental Prime Minister' based on Manmohan Singh's tenure as PM of India, Sanjaya Baru has drawn a rather grim picture of power concentration in Congress as opposed to terminologies used by Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi to target BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

In the book, Baru clearly mentions that PM Manmohan Singh was unable to perform and take decisions as Sonia Gandhi was the actual decision-maker  for Congress. the most debatable aspect of Sonia Gandhi's personality is her nationality as per opposition leaders. 

Currently, she has been campaigning in Rae Bareli and Amethi for her son Rahul Gandhi and also contesting from the Rae Bareili seat. 

Below is a profile of Sonia Gandhi:  

Sonia Gandhi was born Edvige Antonia Albina Màino. She has been at the helm of affairs with Congress since 1998 as the party president. 

* She is the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India

* Sonia Gandhi was born on December 9, 1946 in Contrada Miani at Lusiana

* Her parents were Stefano Miano and Paola Miano. Her father had a small construction business and was himself a building mason

* To overcome adversities she took a job of a waitress in the Varsity Restaurant, a Greek restaurant, when in 1965 she met Rajiv Gandhi, who was studying in Trinity College at the Cambridge University.

* Sonia Gandhi is the President of the Indian National Congress Party. She is the longest serving President of the party, having been elected since 1998. She is also the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee of the ruling coalition, the United Progressive Alliance

* Sonia Gandhi joined politics in 1997 amidst constant request from the party members since the demise of Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991

* She is the first foreign-born, to be the leader of a national party since Independence

* She won Lok Sabha elections in 1999 from Bellary, Uttar Pradesh, defeating Sushma Swaraj, a veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader

* She was re-elected as Lok Sabha member from Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh, twice (2004 and 2009)

* Sonia Gandhi was elected in the 13th Lok Sabha as Leader of Opposition in 1999 during the NDA government led by Bharatiya Janata Party under the leadership of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

* Sonia Gandhi holds the record of serving the Congress Party as its President for 10 consecutive years

* The 2004 elections saw her launching a nationwide campaign with the "Aam Aadmi" slogan against the “India Shining” slogan of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by Bharatiya Janata Party

* She won the election in 2004 with a large margin from the Rae Bareilly constituency. A fifteen-party coalition government was formed, led by the Congress, and was named United Progressive Alliance or UPA. She was expected to be the next Prime Minister but faced staunch opposition from NDA because of her foreign origin

* Sonia Gandhi appointed Manmohan Singh as the next Prime Minister of India, a post that he holds to date

* She declared her resignation from the Lok Sabha and as chairperson of national Advisory Council on 23 March 2006, after the office-of-profit controversy transpired and the speculation rose that the government plans to bring ordinance to exempt the Chairman’s post of National Advisory Council from the purview of office of profit

* During her tenure as Chairman of the UPA government and the National Advisory Committee, she was instrumental in enacting the Right to Information Act and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

* On 2 October 2007, on the eve of birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, she addressed the United Nations. The UN passed a resolution on 15 July 2007, after which this day is observed as the International Day of Non-Violence

* In 2009 General Elections the UPA government led by Congress came to power again with Congress winning 206 seats in the Lok Sabha, the highest ever by any party after 1991. Manmohan Singh was re-appointed as the Prime Minister for a second term

* During the Bofors Scandal, the name of an Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi came out, who was believed to be a friend of Sonia Gandhi and had access to the Prime Minister’s official residence

* In 1980, while she was still an Italian citizen, Sonia Gandhi’s name appeared in the list of voters, which is a violation of Indian law

* The issue cropped up again when her name appeared in the voters list in 1983 because the deadline for registering was January 1983 while she acquired Indian Citizenship in April 1983

*Sharad Pawar, Tariq Anwar and P. A. Sangma, the three senior leaders of the Congress party, questioned her right for the post of Prime Minister in May 1999. Sonia Gandhi offered her resignation as party leader, which resulted in ebullient support for her and eviction of the three members from the party

Achievements    

* She was named the third most powerful woman in the world by Forbes Magazine in 2004

* In 2010, Forbes Magazine ranked her as the ninth most powerful person on the planet

* She was also listed among the Time100 most influential people in the world for the years 2007 and 2008

Watch the video below on Rajiv Gandhi's journey: 

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