Sonia Gandhi is a wife of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi married Rajiv Gandhi on 25 February 1968. Since then Sonia Gandhi has become the Daughter In Law of India’s all time powerful Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her stature has completely changed suddenly.
After she got married Rajiv Gandhi, she was always been staying out of limelight of politics and she preferred in spending most of her time with her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi.
She was forced into active politics to revive Indian National Congress Party after the fateful assassination of Rajiv Gandhi that was carried out by LTTE militants in 1991.
Soon after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, Sonia Gandhi categorically rejected senior leader’s frequent appeals to enter her into politics. At that time she did not show any interest in joining politics and she genuinely confined her role as a wife and a mother till 1997.

In 1998, Sonia Gandhi has changed her reluctant stand and she has become President of the Indian National Congress Party. Since then she served as a Congress President for a period of 15 years continuously till 2013 and she became the longest serving President of Congress party.
When Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister of India, she was always been a homely women and happy with her son Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi.
Ever since she started leading the Indian National Congress party, she was not only facing internal contention within the congress party but also she was targeted her Italian origin. Opposition parties taken this issue during the 1998 Lok Sabha election campaign and they have succeeded in installing Atal Bihari Bajpayee as a Prime Minister of India.
Under her able and efficient leadership, the Congress party has come back to power in 2004 and Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister of India. Sonia Gandhi was the main instrumental in making former Reserve Bank Governor Manmohan Singh as a Prime Minister of India for a period of ten years.
After 2004 Parliament election she could have become Prime Minister of India because her party was in a dominant position with the parliamentary seat numbers. Reports were indicating that the former Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was ready to swear Sonia Gandhi in as the Prime Minister of India despite excessive pressure from various political leaders.
But she scarified Prime Minister’s post for the sake of preserving India’s country’s unity and integrity. She then nominated Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister of India who was the architect of economic reforms of India in 1991 and a trusted lieutenant of the Congress party with an impeccable image.

During Manmohan Singh’s first five years (From 2004 to 2009) Prime Ministerial tenure, Sonia Gandhi systematically strengthened her position within the party and effectively took control of the entire congress party’s machinery. Gradually she has become the most powerful person in India and one of the strongest women in World politics.
During the 2009 Parliament election campaign, the determined Sonia Gandhi tirelessly campaigned length and breadth of the country. She led the Congress party to a consecutive victory and she was able to install Manmohan Singh as a Prime Minister once again in 2009. In this election the Congress party itself won 206 Lok Sabha seats.
Manmohan Singh’s fist five years term was fantastic and the country witnessed rapid growth in the entire sector. This has helped congress party to come back to the power once again in 2009 by winning more parliamentary seats. But the second term of Manmohan Sigh’s Prime Ministerial tenure was marred with continuous corruption allegations that has badly shaken the integrity of Manmohan Singh’s government.
With effect from 2004 to 2014, Sonia Gandhi was the chairperson of the National Advisory Committee that was set up by the Manmohan Singh Government. She was also the Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee of the United Progressive Alliance ruling collision.
During this period she played important roles in implementing economic reforms, foreign policies, development activities and creating jobs in the country etc.

Sonia Gandhi was the main instrumental in implementing following popular schemes:-

• Her pet Food Security Scheme that was hailed as an unparalleled scheme in the world.
• MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) is a Conditional right to work scheme that is assuring by law 100 days of work to every rural family that demands employment, within 15 days of their demand and within 5 km of where they live.
• RTI (Right To Information Act) means that any Indian citizen can request any information (which is supposed to be public knowledge) from the offices and departments of the state or central governments. The act mandates that the said offices and departments must process such requests in a timely manner.
  Even though Sonia Gandhi lead Indian National congress party is now facing formidable political challenge from the present ruling party, but her contributions towards India’s growth and development will be remembered forever.