Chair of the United Progressive Alliance Assumed office
16 May 2004Preceded by Office established President of the Indian National Congress In office
14 March 1998 – 16 December 2017Preceded by Sitaram Kesri Succeeded by Rahul Gandhi Chair of the National Advisory Council In office
29 March 2010 – 25 May 2014Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Preceded by Office established Succeeded by Unknown In office
4 June 2004 – 23 March 2006Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Preceded by Unknown Succeeded by Office abolished Leader of the Opposition In office
19 March 1998 – 22 May 2004Preceded by Sharad Pawar Succeeded by L. K. Advani Member of the Indian Parliament
for Rae BareliAssumed office
17 May 2004Preceded by Satish Sharma Member of the Indian Parliament
for AmethiIn office
10 October 1999 – 17 May 2004Preceded by Sanjay Singh Succeeded by Rahul Gandhi Personal details Born Antonia Maino[1]
9 December 1946
Lusiana, Veneto, ItalyCitizenship Italy (1946–1983)
India (1983–present)Political party Indian National Congress Spouse(s) Rajiv Gandhi
(m. 1968; died 1991)Relations See Nehru–Gandhi family Children Residence 10 Janpath, New Delhi Alma mater Bell Educational Trust Signature 
Sonia Gandhi
pronunciation (help·info); (born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician of Italian descent. A member of the Nehru–Gandhi family by way of her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi, she is a former president of the Indian National Congress. She took over as the party leader in 1998, seven years after her husband's assassination, and remained in office for a record nineteen years, a period that was characterised by the party's renewed adherence to the centre-left position on the Indian political spectrum.Born in a small village near Vicenza, Italy, Gandhi was raised in a Roman Catholic Christian family. After completing her primary education at local schools, she moved to Cambridge for higher education and married Rajiv Gandhi in 1968. She later took up Indian citizenship and began living with her mother-in-law, the then-Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, at the latter's New Delhi residence. Sonia Gandhi, however, continued to stay away from the public sphere, even during the years of her husband's premiership.Following her husband's assassination, Gandhi was invited by Congress leaders to lead the party, but she refused and stayed away from politics. She finally agreed to join politics in 1997 after constant prodding from the party; the following year, she was nominated for party president, and elected over Jitendra Prasada. Under her leadership, the Congress went on form the government post the 2004 elections in coalition with other centre-left political parties. Gandhi has since been credited for being instrumental in formulating the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), which was re-elected to power in 2009. Gandhi declined the premiership following the 2004 victory; she instead led the ruling alliance and the National Advisory Council.Over the course of her career, Gandhi presided over the advisory councils credited for the formation and subsequent implementation of such rights-based development and welfare schemes as the Right to information, Food security bill, and MNREGA, as she drew criticism related to the Bofors scandal and the National Herald Case. Her foreign birth has also been a subject of much debate and controversy. Gandhi's active participation in politics began to reduce during the latter half of the UPA government's second term owing to health concerns. She stepped down as the Congress president in December 2017, but continues to lead the party's Parliamentary committee. Although she never held any public office in the government of India, Gandhi has been widely described as one of the most powerful politicians in the country, and is often listed among the most powerful women in the world.
Early life
Sonia Maino was born on December 9, 1946 to Stefano and Paola Maino in Lusiana (in Maini street), a historically Cimbrian-speaking village about 35 km from Vicenza in Veneto, Italy. Sonia spent her adolescence in Orbassano, a town near Turin, and was raised in a traditional Roman Catholic Christian family. She attained primary education attending the local Catholic schools; Sister Maria, one of her early teachers described her as "a diligent little girl, [who] studied as much as was necessary".
Stefano, who was a building mason established a small construction business in Orbassano. He had fought against the Soviet military alongside Hitler's Wehrmacht on the eastern front in World War II, was a loyal supporter of Benito Mussolini and Italy's National Fascist Party. The family house had leather bound books on writings and speeches of Mussolini. Stefano had named Sonia and her elder sister Nadia in the memory of the Italian participation in the Eastern Front. He died in 1983. Gandhi has two sisters who still reside in Orbassano along with their mother.
Gandhi completed her schooling at the age of 13; her final report card read: "intelligent, diligent, committed [...] would succeed well at the high school for teachers". She aspired to become a flight attendant. In 1964, she went to study English at the Bell Educational Trust's language school in the city of Cambridge. The following year, she met Rajiv Gandhi at the Varsity Restaurant, where she was working as a part-time waitress, while he was enrolled for an engineering degree in the Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. In this context, the Times, London reported, "Mrs Gandhi was an 18-year-old student at a small language college in Cambridge in 1965, when she met a handsome young engineering student". The couple married in 1968, in a Hindu ceremony, following which she moved into the house of her mother-in-law and then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.
The couple had two children, Rahul Gandhi (born 1970) and Priyanka Vadra (born 1972). Despite belonging to the influential Nehru family, Sonia and Rajiv avoided all involvement in politics. Rajiv worked as an airline pilot while Sonia took care of her family. She spent considerable amount of time with her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi; she recalled her experience in a 1985 interview with the Hindi-language magazine Dharmyug, "She [Indira] showered me with all her affection and love". Soon after the latter's ousting from office in 1977 in the aftermath of the Indian Emergency, the Rajiv family contemplated to move abroad for a short time. When Rajiv entered politics in 1982 after the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash on 23 June 1980, Sonia continued to focus on her family and avoided all contact with the public.
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