‘Hurt, broke down’: Sonia Gandhi recalls being questioned over foreign origin within Congress
In her memoir, Sonia Gandhi reveals that Congress colleagues questioned her leadership in 2003 over her foreign origin. Despite feeling hurt and broke down, she firmly insisted on leading the 2004 election campaign.
In her memoir, Sonia Gandhi reveals that Congress colleagues questioned her leadership in 2003 over her foreign origin. Despite feeling hurt and broke down, she firmly insisted on leading the 2004 election campaign.
In her memoir, Sonia Gandhi reveals that Congress colleagues questioned her leadership in 2003 over her foreign origin. Despite feeling hurt and broke down, she firmly insisted on leading the 2004 election campaign.
New Delhi: Sonia Gandhi has revealed that senior Congress leaders had considered appointing someone else to lead the party in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections because of her Italian origin. The realisation that even colleagues who had worked with her for years viewed her as an outsider and a liability to the party deeply hurt her.
The revelations appear in her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love. The move to question Sonia, then Congress president, took place during the party's 2003 Shimla conclave. She believed alliances were essential to counter the growing influence of the BJP and the RSS. However, towards the end of the conclave, tensions surfaced. Sonia learnt that senior leaders were discussing who should lead the party in the upcoming elections.
Deeply shaken by the news, Sonia made a firm decision. She summoned an aide and sent a message to the group of leaders: "As Congress president, it is my duty to lead the election campaign from the front. I have no intention of stepping aside."
She then entered the hall and read out the political resolution. The message was clear: Sonia would lead the party, which would also pursue a broad alliance to take on the BJP. The UPA subsequently came to power following the elections.
Earlier, in 1999, Sharad Pawar, P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar had rebelled against the Congress leadership, raising the issue of Sonia's foreign origin. They later quit the party and formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Sonia also recalls in the book that she could not hold back her tears when Pawar and other leaders moved against her at a Congress Working Committee meeting. She walked out of the meeting in tears.
Gandhi also wrote in the book that she had never seen the disturbing photograph of her husband's body after the bomb blast that killed him in 1991.
"I have never seen the photograph of Rajiv's body after the explosion, even after more than 30 years," she said.
She also reveals that Rahul Gandhi would have been with Rajiv Gandhi at Sriperumbudur on the day of his assassination if there had not been a last-minute change in the travel schedule.