Sonia Gandhi is the longest-serving president of the Congress party, which has governed India during most of its post-Independence decades. She was born in Italy, and educated at Cambridge University, where she met Rajiv Gandhi, who was then the son of prime minister Indira Gandhi. The two married in 1968.
After Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991, during campaigning for that year’s general elections, Sonia Gandhi initially stayed away from politics, but in 1998, she was chosen as the president of the Congress party. Under her leadership, in 2004, a Congress-led coalition came to power at the Centre. She famously declined to be prime minister — her foreign birth had become a politically controversial issue — and instead chose the economist Manmohan Singh. She was then named the chairperson of the coalition, which was called the United Progressive Alliance or the UPA.
Sonia Gandhi won her first Lok Sabha election in 1999, representing Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, a family stronghold. From 2004, she has represented Rae Bareli as an MP in the Lok Sabha. In 2024, she announced she was contesting elections from the Rajya Sabha, the indirectly elected house of Parliament, signalling her stepping back from electoral politics.
1. I can understand why Smt Mamata Banerjee, Trinamool Congress chief and chief minister of West Bengal and many other politicians are harsh critics of NDA government and PM Narendra Modi. I can also understand if regional parties wish to defeat BJP and for this purpose they all wish to form a Federal or Third Front. However, I guess without other regional parties’ consent, Congress cannot become a part of such Front. 2. As a citizen-voter I am not convinced that after 2019 Lok Sabha election, alliance government, mainly of regional parties (as Congress participation in such a government is uncertain), would be in a position to provide good governance and manage our country’s economy in a better way. 3. Reality is that regional parties have no national economic or political agenda. They have no common programme to deal with many issues. In fact, politicians like Smt Banerjee, Smt Mayawati and other leaders of regional parties have always a limited objective-to remain in power in their respective State (West Bengal, or whichever it is). 4. As a citizen-voter I wish to know what the Third l Front of regional parties would like to do to deal with issues like (a) economy’s current problems like inflation and unsatisfactory industrial production growth (b) farmers’ problems which lead to their suicides and agitations (c) creation of jobs in rural & urban areas (d) problems of public sector banks and other government undertakings like Air India (e) existing deficiencies in GST and how to rectify them, etc. 4. I think the Third Front leaders, whenever the front is formed, should come out with a comprehensive document, sort of White Paper (WP). The WP should be released, if not in 2018, at least well before next year’s Lok Sabha election so that voters would get time to study WP and then respond suitably.
Had Didi not been driven out of the party, the Congress could have had its cake and eaten it too.