As Sonia Gandhi Leaves Lok Sabha, Here Is A Short Summary Of The Italian Origin's Indian Story
Sonia Gandhi, the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson today filed her nomination from Rajasthan for the Rajya Sabha election, ending her decades-long Lok Sabha journey. The current president Mallikarjun Kharge assumed office after Mrs Gandhi stepped down from the position in 2022.
Born on December 9, 1947, in Roman Catholic family in Orbassano, a small town in Italy, Congress” matriarch Sonia Gandhi’s journey to Indian politics began with a love story. It was in 1964 that Sonia moved to England to study at Cambridge University where she found and fell in love with India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s grandson Rajiv Gandhi, who was studying engineering course.
After the duo’s marriage in 1968 as per a Hindu ceremony, the couple moved to India, that marked the Italian girl”s foray into the limelight of Indian politics. Her new chapter began at the house of India’s predominant political family.
However, Mrs Gandhi came to active politics by taking the grand old party”s membership at a plenary in Calcutta in 1997, six years after her husband Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991. Within a year, she was elected as the president of the Congress party, starting Sonia”s journey as the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress.
However, not everyone was happy with Mrs Gandhi”s quick ascent to the party”s higher position, and many raised the issue of her foreign origin. The rift led to the resignation of some of the senior leaders from the party such as Sharad Pawar and the creation of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). After the development, the massive support Sonia Gandhi received placed her in the highest position of the country’s then-biggest political party.
Under her leadership, the party won two back-to-back general elections with 16 of the country’s states coming under the Congress party, giving her an unblemished political success. Though she faced ridicule initially, struggling to read out speeches in Hindi, she overcame everything becoming one of the political stalwarts in India.
She had contested and won her first election from two constituencies, Uttar Pradesh”s Amethi and Karnataka’s Bellary. She began her Lok Sabha parliamentary life, winning both the seats. In 2004, Mrs Gandhi stood from Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli constituency and won the seat, maintaining her representation from one of the Congress strongholds till now.
Even at a time when the Congress was reduced to the least numbers in the Narendra Modi waves during 2014 and 2019, Sonia Gandhi managed to poll more than 55 per cent votes from Rae Bareli. Even Rahul Gandhi lost in Amethi, one of the Congress’ former fortresses, to Smriti Irani.
Though she seems to be soft-spoken, she has on many occasions attacked opponents using sharp language. She has slammed Prime Minister Modi several times, calling him only “good at lecturing.” Mrs Gandhi has also been a victim of opposition”s vile attacks, including from the BJP, branding her foreign, noting her Italian roots.
However, as the 2024 general election nears, Mrs Gandhi is embracing a drastic change by choosing to switch to Rajya Sabha, ending her decades-long tenure in the Lok Sabha and electoral politics. But the party workers are still happy that she does not retire from politics. With Mrs Gandhi marking her strong opposition against the recent mass suspension of opposition leaders and many other issues, she is still expected to be at the forefront of the Congress’ hardest battle to confront the growing clutches of the BJP and the regional parties.
