Sonia Gandhi is the longest serving president of Congress party in its history of 127 years . She is also the chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
When Sonia entered Indian politics, nobody took her seriously as she had no prior experience of working in a political party. She was seen as a puppet who was being guided by self-serving coterie of Congress party. But to the credit of Sonia Gandhi, she led from the front and proved all her critics wrong. Her presence rejuvenated a demoralized Congress and the party stormed back to power in 2004 and repeated the performance in 2009.
She was born in Italy and her original name was Antonia Edvige Albina Maino. She met Rajiv Gandhi in England where she was studying English at the Bell Educational Trust's language in the city of Cambridge.
At that time, Rajiv Gandhi was also enrolled in Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. In 1965, Sonia met Rajiv at a Greek restaurant where she worked as a part-time waitress.
After three years of courtship, Sonia and Rajiv got married in 1968. After marriage, Sonia shifted to India.
Sonia has been in controversy for a long timeover her citizenship. She was granted Indian citizenship in 1983 but her name figured in New Delhi's voter list in 1980 in gross violation of Indian laws and it is said that she was also holding Italian passport at that time. The issue cropped up once again in 1983 when she acquired Indian citizenship in April 1983. Sonia's name figured in 1983 Voter list for which the deadline was January 1983 while Sonia actually got Indian citizenship in April 1983.
