Sonia Gandhi

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For the scientist, see Sonia Gandhi (scientist).

Sonia Gandhi

Gandhi in 2014

President of the Indian National Congress

Incumbent

Assumed office

10 August 2019

Preceded by Rahul Gandhi

In office

14 March 1998 – 16 December 2017

Preceded by Sitaram Kesri

Succeeded by Rahul Gandhi

Chair of the United Progressive Alliance

 Incumbent

Assumed office

6 May 2004

Preceded by Office established

Chair of the National Advisory Council

In office

29 March 2010 – 25 May 2014

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

Preceded by Office established

Succeeded by Position abolished

In office

4 June 2004 – 23 March 2006

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

Preceded by Office established

Succeeded by Position abolished

Leader of the Opposition

In office

19 March 1998 – 22 May 2004

Preceded by Sharad Pawar

Succeeded by L. K. Advani

Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

Incumbent
 Assumed office

2004

Preceded by Satish Sharma

Constituency Rae Bareli

In office

10 October 1999 – 17 May 2004

Preceded by Sanjay Singh

Succeeded by Rahul Gandhi

Constituency Amethi

Personal details

Born Sonia Maino

9 December 1946 (age 74)

Lusiana, Veneto, Italy

Citizenship Italy (1946–1983)
India (1983–present)

Political party Indian National Congress

Rajiv Gandhi
Spouse(s)

(m. 1968; died 1991)

Relations See  Nehru–Gandhi family

Rahul Gandhi
Children
Priyanka Gandhi

Residence 10 Janpath, New Delhi

 Alma mater Bell Educational Trust

Net worth ₹11.83 crore (US$1.7 million)[1]

Signature

Sonia Gandhi (née Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the

president of the Indian National Congress, a big tent political party, which has
governed India for most of its post-independence history. She took over as the party
leader in 1998, seven years after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, her husband
and a former Prime Minister of India, and remained in office until 2017 after serving
for twenty-two years.[a] She returned to the post in 2019 after her son, Rahul Gandhi,
resigned.
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. Sonia Gandhi, however, kept away from the public sphere, even
during the years of her husband's premiership.
Following her husband's assassination, Gandhi was invited by Congress leaders to
lead the party, but she declined. 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.[b] 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 (UPA), which was re-elected to power in 2009.
Gandhi declined the premiership following the 2004 victory; she instead led the ruling
alliance and the National Advisory Council.[c]
Over the course of her career, Gandhi presided over the advisory councils 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 the National Herald Case. Her
foreign birth has also been a subject of much debate and controversy. [d] Gandhi's
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. Although she never held any public office in the government of India, Gandhi
has been widely described as one of the most powerful politicians in the country, and
is often listed among the most powerful women in the world. [e]

Contents

 1Early life
 2Political career
o 2.1Rajiv Gandhi's premiership (1984–1990)
 o 2.2Active politics and Congress President (1991–1998)
o 2.3Leader of the Opposition (1999–2003)
o 2.4Electoral success and UPA chairmanship (2004–2017)
o 2.52014–present
 3Personal life
 4Honours and recognition
 5Books featuring Sonia Gandhi
 6See also
 7References
o 7.1Notes
o 7.2Citations
 8Further reading
 9External links

Early life

Sonia Gandhi's birthplace, 31, Contrada Maini (Maini street), Lusiana, Italy (the house on the right)

Sonia Maino[20] was born on 9 December 1946 to Stefano and Paola Maino

in Lusiana (in Maini street), a historically Cimbrian-speaking village about 35 km
from Vicenza in Veneto, Italy.[21][22] She was one of three siblings: Sonia, Nadia and
Anoushka,[23] raised in a traditional Roman Catholic Christian family.[20] Sonia spent
her adolescence in Orbassano, a town near Turin. She attained primary education
attending the local Catholic schools; one of her early teachers described her as "a
diligent little girl, [who] studied as much as was necessary". [20]
Stefano, who was a building mason, established a small construction business in
Orbassano.[23] He had fought against the Soviet
military alongside Hitler's Wehrmacht on the eastern front in World War II, was a
loyal supporter of Benito Mussolini and Italy's National Fascist Party. The family
house had leather bound books on writings and speeches of Mussolini.[23] Stefano
had named Sonia and her elder sister Nadia in the memory of the Italian participation
in the Eastern Front.[20] He died in 1983.[24] Gandhi has two sisters who still reside in
Orbassano along with their mother.[25]
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". She aspired to become a flight attendant.[20] In 1964, she went to study
English at the Bell Educational Trust's language school in the city of Cambridge. The
following year, she met Rajiv Gandhi at the Varsity Restaurant, where she was
working as a part-time waitress, while he was enrolled for an engineering degree in
the Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.[26][27] In this context, the Times,
London reported, "Mrs Gandhi was an 18-year-old student at a small language
college in Cambridge in 1965, [...] when she met a handsome young engineering
student".[28] The couple married in 1968, in a Hindu ceremony, following which she
moved into the house of her mother-in-law and then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.[29][9]
The couple had two children, Rahul Gandhi (born 1970) and Priyanka Vadra (born
1972). Despite belonging to the influential Nehru family, Sonia and Rajiv avoided all
involvement in politics. Rajiv worked as an airline pilot while Sonia took care of her
family. She spent considerable amount of time with her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi;
she recalled her experience in a 1985 interview with the Hindi-language
magazine Dharmyug, "She [Indira] showered me with all her affection and love".
[30]
 Soon after the latter's ousting from office in 1977 in the aftermath of the Indian
Emergency, the Rajiv family contemplated moving abroad for a short time. [31] When
Rajiv entered politics in 1982 after the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in
a plane crash on 23 June 1980, Sonia continued to focus on her family and avoided
all contact with the public.[32]