Name: Sonia Gandhi

Original Name: Antonia Edvige Albina Maino

DOB: Dec 9, 1946

Age: 69

Birth Place: Lusiana, Veneto, Italy

Profession: Political and Social Worker

Spouse Name: Late Rajiv Gandhi

Children: 1 son & 1 daughter

Important positions she has held :

March 1998 - Dec 2017: President, Indian National Congress Chairperson

March 2010 – May 2014: Chairperson of the National Advisory Council

May 2004 Onwards: Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance

March 1998 - May 2004: Leader of the Opposition

Oct 1999 – May 2004: Member of the Indian Parliament for Rae Bareli

Her Achievements :

In 2004: Forbes Magazine named her as the 3rd most powerful woman in the world.
In 2010: Forbes Magazine named her as the 9th most powerful person on this planet.
She got her name registered among the Times most influential person in the world (for years 2007-2008)

Introduction

Sonia Gandhi is an Indian Politician who belongs to the third generation of the Gandhi-Nehru family. She is an Italian born woman who was married to late Rajiv Gandhi and she is also the former President of the Indian National Congress. Her original name was Edvige Antonia Albina Maino, who was born on 9th December 1946 in Italy. Her husband Rajiv Gandhi got assassinated in the year 1991. She joined Politics in the year 1997 when she got insistence from the congress party workers after the death of her husband.

Early Life and Childhood

Her Political career has always been under controversies for her foreign origin and she had to face continuous hardships in that regard. Since the Independence, she is the first woman who has leaded the Indian National Congress Party. She was also the Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance which was also the ruling Government for two consecutive years. Apart from that she is also the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress.

Personal Life

She was born in Contrada Miani at Lusiana which a small village is situated about 30 km Vicenza, Veneto in Italy in the year 1946, December 9. She had spent her early life in a town called Orbassano near Turin on a catholic household. Sonia Gandhi studied in a catholic school and later she completed her English education from Cambridge in 1964 under the Bell Education Trust. While she was working in the Varsity Restaurant during 1965, she came to know Rajiv Gandhi. That time Rajiv Gandhi was studying in the Trinity College at the Cambridge University.

That meet ended in a flourishing relationship for them and they ended up getting married in the year 1968 and later on Sonia Gandhi shifted to the house of Indira Gandhi her mother in law who was also the Prime minister of India. The couple then got blessed with two children and named them Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. She kept a distance from politics then and remained a housewife while her husband Rajiv Gandhi was an airline pilot.

How she landed up into politics

She was never interested in entering into politics but gradually with the changes taking place in life, it just happened. She used to lead a quite life of a housewife keeping a distance from politics, in the early years of her marriage. It was only during the time when her husband was contesting elections for the post of Prime Minster that she got connected to the public eyes. That was the time when Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, was assassinated, Sonia Gandhi in the year 1984 for the first time campaigned against Maneka Gandhi, who was fighting against Rajiv Gandhi in Amethi. Rajiv Gandhi then became the Prime Minister of the country after winning the election. But, unfortunately Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in the year 1991 and then the party invited her to become the Prime Minister of the country but she refused and so the party chose P. V. Narasimha Rao at the post of PM and also the head of the party. When in 1996, the party lost the elections and congress started witnessing several splits, Sonia Gandhi was forced to join the party. In 1997, she became a part of the congress party so as to revive the previous position of the party and soon in 1998 she became the leader of the party.

Some Important Facts about Sonia Gandhi :

• Merely within a period of 62 days after joining as the primary member, Sonia Gandhi became the president of the congress party.
• In 1999, she won the elections from the Bareli constituency in UP after defeating the leader of BJP leader Sushma Swaraj.
• Both in 2004 and 2009, she became the member of Lok Sabha from the Bareli constituency.
• In 1999, she was elected as the 13th leader of opposition in Lok Sabha when Atal Behari Vajpayee in the BJP led Government.
• In 2003, she also called out a non-confidence motion against the Government during her tenure as the leader of the opposition.
• She has been on the position of the President of the Congress party and has served as the longest serving person holding the post from 1998.
• In 2004, after she won the Lok Sabha elections from Rae Bareilly a coalition Government led by the Congress party was formed which was named as United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
• Since there was a staunch opposition coming from the NDA Government because of her foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi and that she is not apt for holding the position of the Prime minister of the country.
• She resigned from Lok Sabha in 2006 March 23 after some office-of-profit controversy rose. But, again in 2006, she won from Rae Bareilly with a huge margin and was re-elected as the president.

Books published on life of Sonia Gandhi:

• 'Sonia Gandhi: An Extraordinary Life, An Indian Destiny' by Rani Singh - Beginning with the love story of Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi, the book explains about the story of her entry into politics.
• 'Sonia Gandhi: Tryst with India' by Nurul Islam Sarkar – tells about her journey and the way she courageously and amiably walked on.
• 'Sonia: A Biography' by Rasheed Kidwai's