"The Congress is unique. Our uniqueness arises from several basic features of the Congress`s history, its character, its ideology and the legacy of its leadership. I am convinced that the time is ripe for a massive renaissance of our political culture so that we build that society which combines compassion with competence, equity with excellence." - Sonia Gandhi.

She was named the third most powerful woman in the world by "Forbes" magazine in the year 2004. An Italian-born Indian politician, Sonia Gandhi is the widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi and the President of the Indian National Congress. Being the third woman of foreign origin to hold the prestigious post after Annie Beasant and Nelli Sengupta, Sonia Gandhi also became the fifth from the Nehru family to take over the Congress reins. She is the Chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance in the Lok Sabha, and the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party. She also is the eighth person of the foreign origin to be the Congress president.

Sonia Antonia Maino was born on 9th December 1946 to Stefano and Paola Maino in Lusiana, a little village 50 km from Vicenza, Italy. Her father, a building contractor and reportedly former Fascist supporter of Mussolini, died in 1983. Her mother and two sisters still live around Orbassano. Before going to the city of Cambridge to study English at The Bell Educational Trust`s language school, she spent her adolescence in Orbassano, a town near Turin being raised in a Roman Catholic family and attending a Catholic school. During her course in the city of Cambridge she met Rajiv Gandhi, who was enrolled at the time in Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. They were married in 1969, after which she moved into the house of Gandhi in India.

The wedding was a simple nondenominational ceremony in the garden of 1, Safdarjang Road. Sonia wore a pink sari made from cotton, which Nehru had spun while in prison... It was the same sari which Indira had worn for her wedding, says biographer Nicholas Nugent in his book "Rajiv Gandhi -son of a dynasty". The simple ceremony was held on Vasant Panchami day in February, the same day when Indira Gandhi married Feroze decades earlier. Sonia Antonio Maino became Sonia Gandhi, daughter-in-law of then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi, The couple had two children, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

Despite the family`s heavy involvement in politics, Sonia Gandhi had, in fact, shown aversion to politics for long. She detested politics and opposed her husband Rajiv entering it. Sonia and Rajiv avoided all involvement. Rajiv worked as an airline pilot, and Sonia took care of her family. In 1977 when Indira was ousted from office and when Rajiv entered politics in 1982, Sonia continued to focus on her family and avoided all contact with publicity.

After the assassination of her mother-in-law, Rajiv Gandhi was elected as Prime Minister. Sonia Gandhi`s involvement with Indian public life began. She adopted Indian citizenship in 1983, fifteen years after her marriage to Rajiv, when, it is speculated, she realized that her husband`s fortunes as prime minister might be affected by her Italian citizenship. As the Prime Minister`s wife she acted as his official hostess and also accompanied him on a number of state visits. She was also involved in looking after her husband`s constituency of Amethi. In 1984, she actively campaigned against her sister-in-law Maneka Gandhi who was running against Rajiv in Amethi.

Gandhi did not enter politics until after her husband`s assassination on May 21, 1991. Following his death she was pressured by the Congress Party to enter politics and to continue the party`s dynastic tradition of being led by a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Sonia was fervent in her denunciation of politics and politicians. She is said to have stated that she would have rather seen her children beg than enter into the maelstrom of Indian political life. Since Rajiv Gandhi`s death, Sonia had led a life of near abstinent for six years but for her appearances at a few official functions. She touched many a heart when she poured out her `vedna` (agony) at a public meeting a few years ago in Amethi about the delay in the probe of Rajiv assassination case.

After her refusal, the party settled on the choice of P V Narasimha Rao as leader and, subsequently, Prime Minister. The Congress fortunes continued to decrease and it was feared that it would no longer be the largest party in the parliament. Several senior leaders such as Madhavrao Scindia, Rajesh Pilot, Mamata Banerjee, G K Moopanar, P.Chidambaram, Jayanthi Natarajan etc were in open revolt against the incumbent President Sitaram Kesri and quit the party, splitting the Congress into many factions. Sonia joined the Congress Party as a primary member in the Calcutta Plenary Session at 1997. She officially took charge of the Congress party as its president in 1998. She was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1999 from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh as well as Bellary in Karnataka. Congress, which was forecast not to cross the double-digit mark, managed a tally of 141 seats, largely due to her charismatic presence during the campaign.

In the year 1999, Sonia Gandhi was elected the Leader of the Opposition of the 13th Lok Sabha. Her opponents during her campaign mainly the Bharatiya Janata Party played up her foreign birth, her failure to take Indian citizenship for 15 years after her wedding, and her lack of fluency in Hindi or any Indian language despite her assertion that she had "become an Indian in her heart the day she became Indira Gandhi`s daughter-in-law". Her Italian origin gave her opponents propaganda grist. Three senior leaders Sharad Pawar, Purno A. Sangma and Tariq Anwar challenged her right to try to become India`s Prime Minister, given that she was not born of Indian blood or soi. In May 1999, Sonia Gandhi offered to resign from the Congress Party leadership after that.

When the BJP-led NDA formed a government under Atal Behari Vajpayee, she took on the office of the Leader of Opposition. As Leader of Opposition she called a no-confidence motion against the NDA government led by Vajpayee in 2003. The motion was moved after the Defence Ministry refused to disclose the findings of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) probe into the allegations of corruption in purchase of caskets during the Kargil War. She used the opportunity to kick off the Congress` election campaign while the motion was resoundingly defeated in the NDA dominated house. In her own speech to open the debate, she accused the government in handling the Kargil crisis and the violence in the North East. She also charged the government ministers with profiteering from the war. In their replies the government did not answer any questions raised by Mrs Gandhi but focused their attack on her "foreign origins." A nationwide campaign was launched by Sonia Gandhi in the 2004 general elections, criss-crossing the country on the Aam Aadmi the Ordinary people slogan in contrast to the `India Shining` slogan of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) alliance. In the election ,she won by a large margin from the Rae Bareilly constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Following the unexpected defeat of the NDA, she was widely expected to be the next Prime Minister of India. On May 16, she was unanimously chosen to lead a 15-party coalition government with the support of the left, which was subsequently named the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

Again a a storm of controversy raised by the NDA over her `foreign origin`. Leaders like Sushma Swaraj threatened to shave their hair, as a protest, among others. Gandhi declined the leadership of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha. That position would have indicated that she was the party`s nominee for Prime Minister. Her action was attacked by the opponents as a political stunt in which the ultimate aim was to gain an absolute majority for the Congress Party in Parliament. While her act was hailed as an act of renunciation.

Several members of the National Democratic Alliance like notably Subramaniam Swamy and Sushma Swaraj claimed that there were legal reasons that omitted her from the Prime Minister`s post. And indeed from Parliament. They pointed, in particular, to Section 5 of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1955, which they claimed implied `reciprocity`. This was contested by others and eventually the suits were dismissed by the Supreme Court of India.

In a speech given to Congress M.Ps in the Central Hall of Parliament, she finally said that she had never aimed to be Prime Minister and her entry into politics was only to preserve secularism and protect the poor. She said that after listening to the promptings of her "inner voice" she had no desire to occupy the Prime Minister`s position. Amid indignant shouts from her supporters, she said, "I request you to accept my decision and to recognize that I will not reverse it. ... It is my inner voice, my conscience." Lawmakers surrounded the podium and begged her to reconsider. On May 18, she recommended noted economist Dr. Manmohan Singh for the Prime Minister`s post. Dr. Singh had served as India`s finance minister in a previous Congress party government headed by P.V. Narshima Rao, and is considered by many as the chief architect of India`s economic reforms of the early 1990s.

Sonia Gandhi retained the post of the Leader of the Majority and the Chairperson of the UPA. This enabled her to keep political control of the party and to deal with the political fire fights in the giant coalition government while leaving the management of the country in the hands of Manmohan Singh. On March 23, 2006, Sonia Gandhi resigned from the Lok Sabha and also the chairperson`s position of the National Advisory Council. According to Indian electoral law, an elected person cannot hold an office of profit (meaning paid posts). She was re-elected from her constituency Rae Bareilly in May 2006. She played an important role in making the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Right to Information Act into law, as chairperson of the National Advisory Committee.

Gandhi has published two books about her late husband, "Rajiv and Rajiv`s World", and edited two volumes of letters exchanged between Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi from 1922 to 1964, "Freedom`s Daughter and Two Alone", "Two Together".

In a short span since she plunged into active politics. In the process, Sonia Gandhi also emulated her husband, mother-in-law and grandfather-in-law-Rajiv, Indira and Nehru. Observers commented that Sonia successfully adopted her mother-in-law`s mannerism and style in warming her way to large crowds, which had turned up at her election rallies. Now not only Sonia is in the thick of politics, but her children, Rahul and Priyanka, too are in great demand in the Congress circle for taking over the Youth Congress.