Sonia Gandhi

Sonia Gandhi

Sonia Gandhi is an Indian politician. She is the president of the Indian National Congress, the left-of-centre political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independence history. She has been widely described as one of the most powerful politicians in the country, and is often listed among the mostpowerful women in the world. She was born in a small village near Vicenza, Italy.

About Sonia Gandhi in brief

Summary Sonia GandhiSonia Gandhi is an Indian politician. She is the president of the Indian National Congress, the left-of-centre political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independence history. Born in a small village near Vicenza, Italy, Gandhi was raised in a Roman Catholic family. After completing her primary education at local schools, she moved for language classes to Cambridge, England, where she met Rajiv Gandhi, and later married him in 1968. She then moved to India and started living with her mother-in-law, the then-Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, at the latter’s New Delhi residence. Despite belonging to the influential Nehru family, Sonia and Rajiv avoided all involvement in politics. She agreed to join politics in 1997 after much pleading from the party; the following year, she was nominated for party president, and elected over Jitendra Prasada. Under her leadership, the Congress went on to form the government post the 2004 elections in coalition with other centre-left political parties. Gandhi has since been credited for being instrumental in formulating the United Progressive Alliance, which was re-elected to power in 2009. Her active participation in politics began to reduce during the latter half of the UPA government’s second term owing to health concerns. She stepped down as the Congress president in December 2017, but returned to lead the party in August 2019. She has been widely described as one of the most powerful politicians in the country, and is often listed among the mostpowerful women in the world.

Her foreign birth has also been a subject of much debate and controversy. Gandhi completed her schooling at the age of 13; her final report card read: \”intelligent, diligent, committed would succeed well at the high school for teachers\”. In 1964, she went to study English at the Bell Educational Trust’s language school in the city of Cambridge. In 1968, she met a young engineering student at Trinity College, Cambridge, and the couple married. The couple had two children, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra. She spent considerable amount of time with her mom Indira, and worked as an airline pilot while Sonia took care of her family. She declined the premiership following the 2004 victory; she instead led the ruling alliance and the National Advisory Council. She was credited for the formation and subsequent implementation of such rights-based development and welfare schemes as the right to information, Food security bill, and MNREGA, as she drew criticism related to the Bofors scandal and National Herald Case. The family house had leather bound books on writings and speeches of Mussolini. Stefano had named Sonia and her elder sister Nadia in the memory of the Italian participation in the Eastern Front in World War II, he died in 1983. He had fought against the Soviet military alongside Hitler’s Wehrmacht on the eastern front in WW II, was a loyal supporter of Benito Mussolini and Italy’s National Fascist Party.