New Delhi, Dec 9 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended birthday greetings to Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and wished her a long life and good health.
PM Modi took to the social media platform X and posted, “Birthday greetings to Smt. Sonia Gandhi Ji. May she be blessed with a long life and good health."
Sonia Gandhi, who stepped down as Congress President in 2017, remains the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress, the country's oldest political party. She was succeeded by her son Rahul Gandhi. Born on December 9, 1946, Sonia Gandhi is the daughter of Stefano Maino, a building mason, and Paola Maino. She grew up in a Roman Catholic family in Orbassano, a small town in Italy, along with her sisters Nadia and Anoushka.
In 1964, she moved to Cambridge, England, to study English, where she met Rajiv Gandhi, who was pursuing engineering. The two fell in love, and in 1968, they married in a Hindu ceremony. After marriage, Sonia moved into the home of her mother-in-law, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, entering the complex world of Indian politics, public scrutiny, and national responsibility.
Sonia Gandhi first became Congress President in 1998. At that time, the party was grappling with leadership crises, internal conflicts, and electoral defeats. The Congress was in power in only three states: Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Mizoram. Under her leadership, the party went on to win two consecutive general elections and governed as many as 16 states in the 2000s before its gradual decline after 2014.
She formally joined the Congress party in 1997 at the Calcutta plenary session. In the 1998 general elections, the Congress won 141 seats, a slight improvement over its previous tally. Within months of this result, Sonia Gandhi was elected Congress president, replacing Sitaram Kesri in what was often described as a bloodless coup.
However, her rise was not without controversy. In May 1999, senior leaders Sharad Pawar, P.A. Sangma, and Tariq Anwar questioned her foreign origin. Sonia briefly offered to resign, but overwhelming support within the party strengthened her position. The dispute eventually led to the formation of the Nationalist Congress Party.
Over the years, Sonia Gandhi evolved from a reluctant political figure delivering speeches in heavily accented Hindi to a central face of the Congress and a key influence in national politics.
However, due to age and health reasons, Sonia Gandhi announced that she would not contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and would instead guide the party under the leadership of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge. She is currently a member of the Rajya Sabha.
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