Gandhi, Sonia (1946-…), an Italian-born Indian politician, served as the president of India’s Congress Party from 1998 to 2017 and as the party’s interim president from 2019 to 2022. She is the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, a former prime minister of India who was assassinated in 1991.
Sonia Maino was born on Dec. 9, 1946, near Vicenza, Italy, and grew up near Turin, Italy. She met Rajiv Gandhi while studying at a language school in Cambridge, England. They married in 1968. They had two children, Rahul and Priyanka. Sonia Gandhi became an Indian citizen in 1983.
Gandhi had little involvement in politics during her husband’s lifetime. However, she joined the Congress Party in 1997 and became its president in 1998. In 1999, Gandhi was elected to a seat in the Lok Sabha, the more important of the two houses of the Indian Parliament. Overall, the Congress Party won fewer seats in the Lok Sabha than in any previous election. During the election campaign, some party members raised questions about the possibility of the foreign-born Gandhi becoming prime minister should the party win the election. They also pointed out her inability to speak any Indian language properly. Gandhi then resigned as Congress Party president, but returned to the post following an outcry in the party.
In elections in 2004, an alliance led by the Congress Party won the largest number of seats in the Lok Sabha. Gandhi was offered the post of prime minister, but she refused it. The post then went to Manmohan Singh, a former finance minister. In 2006, opposition members of Parliament accused Gandhi of breaking the law by holding two paying government jobs—member of the Lok Sabha and chairperson of the National Advisory Council, a body set up to advise the government. Gandhi’s supporters claimed the law was outdated, but she resigned from both posts. She was reelected to Parliament later that year. In elections in 2014, Gandhi was again reelected to Parliament, but the Congress Party lost control of the Lok Sabha. Gandhi retired as Congress Party president in 2017 and was succeeded by her son, Rahul. She became the party’s interim president in 2019, following Rahul’s resignation, and served in that role until 2022.
See also Gandhi, Rajiv.
