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.
The correct title is – When (not (If) Modi wins tomorrow! You wishful thinking is obvious!
But you have to complement Modi for his determination to stop corruption! His ideas seem to be be echoing the most common people of India. His simple themes like let us make here, let us be clean, let us love our country, let us love our culture, let us work for our country are easy to understand. Many of the people vibe with such ideas especially those that are young and want to do. For example he is only one who said Sufi-ism is peaceful islam. Many indians like me do not even know about sufi-ism and suddenly realized that there is some islam whch is peaceful. Perhaps he is the only one who said this in a world in which everybody referred to islamist terrorism. I think in an India where we are more governed by feudal lords from villages to New Delhi, Modi is a welcome change. He has the character to leave an India that is strong and determined before he retires from politics. We need such an India – pragmatic and straightforward rather than non-transparent, corrupt and feudalistic.
Eating raw onions in the afternoon is a no no. For someone who aspired to national greatness, Pramod Mahajan let himself vulnerable on some small things.