Former Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi is a politician (INC). She assumed control of the Congress in 1998 and is the widow of the late Rajiv Gandhi.
Sonia Gandhi: Youth, Family, and Education
Edvige Stefano and Paola Maino welcomed Antonia Albina Maino into the world on December 9, 1946 in a tiny Italian town close to Vicenza. She was brought up in a conventional Roman Catholic Christian family.
Stefano, Sonia’s father, started a modest company in Orbassano as a building Manson. Alongside Hitler’s Wehrmacht, he also battled the Soviet army on the eastern front of World War II. Stefano was a devoted admirer of Mussolini and the National Fascist Party of Italy.
Sonia finished school at the age of 13 and wanted to work as a flight attendant. After completing her elementary education at neighborhood catholic schools, she enrolled in Bell Educational Trust’s language program in Cambridge in 1964 to learn English.
Sonia Gandhi’s Age
Sonia Gandhi is 75 years old.
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Sonia Gandhi’s Personal Life
She worked as a bartender at the Varsity rooftop bar in Cambridge in 1964, where she first met Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi was enrolled as an engineering student at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, at the time. Rajiv and Sonia got married in a Hindu ceremony in 1968, and they later relocated to India. She began residing with her mother-in-law and Indira Gandhi, who was India’s prime minister at the time.
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra, the couple’s twins, were born. Rajiv and Sonia abstained from politics. Sonia was a homemaker at the time, while Rajiv was a pilot for an airline. Rajiv Gandhi entered politics in 1982, following the passing of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi on June 23, 1980.
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Sonia Gandhi’s Political Career
Sonia Gandhi entered politics in 1984 and ran an anti-Maneka Gandhi campaign in Amethi. The Bofors Scandal started after Rajiv Gandhi’s five years in office. According to various stories, the Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi was involved and was thought to be a friend of Sonia Gandhi, who had access to the PM’s official residence.
After Rajiv Gandhi, the incumbent prime minister, was killed in 1991, Sonia Gandhi declined to take over as leader of the government, and P.V. Narasimha Rao was appointed instead. The Congress Party lost the 1996 elections, and a number of its top officials defected.
Sonia Gandhi became a member of the Congress Party in the Calcutta Plenary Session in 1997. In 1998, she was named the party’s leader.
Sharad Pawar, P. A. Sangma, and Tariq Anwar, three prominent members of the Congress, contested Sonia’s eligibility to serve as prime minister of India in May 1999 on the grounds that she was born outside of India. As a result, Sonia offered to quit, the members were kicked out, and they later founded the Nationalist Congress Party.
Sonia Gandhi ran for office in 1999 in Bellary (Karnataka) and Amethi (U.P.). She won both seats, however, she choose to serve Amethi. Sonia defeated seasoned BJP leader Sushma Swaraj in the Bellary constituency.
Sonia Gandhi was chosen to lead the opposition during the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999.
Sonia Gandhi started the “Who is India Shining for?” campaign during the 2004 Indian general elections. This slogan was pro-common Indians and opposed the BJP-led NDA, which used the motto “India Shining.” She was predicted to become India’s next prime minister after winning the elections. On May 16, she was chosen to lead the coalition government (15-party), known as the UPA ( United Progressive Alliance).
In the middle of this, seasoned BJP leader Sushma Swaraj promised to shave her head and sleep on the ground if Sonia became the Prime Minister of India. NDA also asserted that reciprocity is implied under Section 5 of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1955.
A few days later, Sonia suggested Manmohan Singha as her option for prime minister, and the party leaders supported her pick.
In response to the office-of-profit controversy and rumors that the government was preparing to introduce an ordinance exempting the position of chairperson of the National Advisory Council from the definition of office of profit, she announced her resignation from the Lok Sabha and her position as chairman of the National Advisory Council on March 23, 2006.
Sonia was re-elected in May 2006 with a margin of more than 400,000 votes in her Rae Bareli district.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Right to Information Act were both passed into law thanks in large part to Sonia Gandhi. On July 15, 2007, the UN passed a resolution designating October 2 as the International Day of Nonviolence. Sonia Gandhi spoke before the UN on October 2, 2007.
Under Sonia Gandhi’s leadership, Congress triumphed in the 2009 general elections once more, obtaining 206 seats in the Lok Sabha. As an MP from Rae Bareli, Sonia won re-election for a third time.
Sonia Gandhi made history in 2013 by becoming the first person to lead the Congress for 15 years in a row. Gandhi supported LGBT rights in the same year that he denounced the Delhi High Court’s ruling in favor of Section 377 of the IPC.
Sonia defeated Rae Bareli in the general elections of 2014, although the parties fared poorly.
When Rahul Gandhi was anticipated to succeed Robert Kennedy as Congress President in 2017, CPI (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury referred to Sonia as the “glue” that holds the opposition together in an interview. On December 16, 2017, Rahul Gandhi was elected as the 49th leader of Congress.
In the 2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, Sonia Gandhi ran for INC. She spoke during a rally at Bijapur, where there were five assembly seats up for election. Congress won four of the five seats from Bijapur.
Congress lost its second straight election in 2019 under Rahul Gandhi’s direction, and he later announced his resignation as president. In an August meeting, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) decided that Sonia Gandhi would serve as interim president while a candidate was chosen.
Sonia Gandhi called for the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah following the riots in North East Delhi in February 2020 because he had failed to stop the carnage.
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Sonia Gandhi’s Net Worth
Sonia Gandhi reported having a net worth of $92.8 million in 2014, with $64.7 million in moveable and 28.1 million in immovable property. Since she announced her candidacy in the most recent election, this has increased by over six times.