At a glance: Ambika Soni, the fiery Congress general secretary

New Delhi: Any Indian might contemplate and limit himself to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi when it comes to Indian polity's relation with Italy. But to everyone's surprise, Italy harvested another newsworthy politician for India. Ambika Soni with her diplomat husband Uday Soni traveled many places but it was during Ambika's stay in Rome with her husband that she caught an eye of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.Indira wanted Ambika to join politics and she would not have settled for a ``no'' as an answer. For Indira, the fire and talent that Ambika consisted of was something Indian politics could not have given a miss. Her first few words for Ambika were `you must join politics'.Ambika's life was about to witness a revolutionary change. In 1969, with the Congress party undergoing split , Indira inducted Ambika into Congress party. Her appointment as the president of Indian Youth Congress followed in 1975.Ambika soon became one of the closest associates of Indira's younger son, Sanjay Gandhi. While everyone else followed their fiery leader Sanjay during the period of emergency, Ambika managed to walk alongside and matched her guts with that of Sanjay's. The fearless Ambika did not give any second thoughts before opting for tough and grubby lanes of politics over her comfortable life of a homemaker.A debutant in the ruthless field where men had outnumbered females, Ambika had all the basic instincts set in place to make a survival. With her witty brain and high intellectual level, Ambika soon made a mark for herself in Indian politics.She became a Rajya Sabha member in 1976 and presided over the All India Mahila Congress in 1998. In 2006, she was appointed as the Minister of Tourism and Minister of Culture in UPA I government and became the Minister of Information and Broadcasting in UPA II government.Recently, she resigned from the cabinet and has been given the responsibility of a general secretary by the Congress party, keeping in mind the upcoming parliamentary elections where she can use her election management skills to ensure a hat-trick for the party. Let's have a look at her some of the most interesting photographs: