Sonia Gandhi (born on 9 December 1946 near Turin in Italy) married India's future prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, in Delhi, on 25 February 1968. Prior to her husband's assassination on 21 May 1991 (by a human bomb at Sriperundur in Tamil Nadu (Southern India) she kept a low political profile. She observed the same attitude even after his death. Lately, however, she came into the limelight, first as the Congress Parliamentary Party (C.C.P.)'s President and then as the leader of the opposition in the 13^th Indian Lok Sabha (House of the People) elections. In the following sketch of Sonia Gandhi's political career (which is situated in the backdrop of the 1999 elections in India) we shall discuss on the one hand, not only the role of Indian women in politics (in general), but also consider the unforeseen situation of a foreign national trying to carve out a niche for herself in the empowerment arena. Above all, we shall also dwell on the "dynastic leadership" tendency observed in Indian democracy since its foundation in August 1947.

The Recent Elections

The following tables give us first a bird's eye view of the variety of the parties that ran for elections in 1999 (Table 1 : State Parties), and secondly (Tables 2 and 3) the results of the winning parties which subsequently led to the continuation of the previous governing party at the Centre (The Bharatiya Janata Party (B.J.P.) and Allies) and also to the representation of the opposition by Congress Party and the Allies.

(Source: <http://www.elections.bol.net.in/>
 
 

During Rajiv Gandhi's political tenure, Sonia Gandhi canvassed for her husband for three weeks in his constituency in April 1991. She was to stand for her own election later on from this very constituency namely Amethi, in Northern India.

After her husband's death in May 1991, Sonia Gandhi did not come to the political forefront immediately. She was more involved with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and devoted herself to art, heritage, exhibitions, health work, social work and seminars. She also wrote a book called "Rajiv".

She was proposed as the Congress Party's President in 1991 but she refused. However, at the end of 1993 she decided to enter into politics. At a rally in Amethi, she began by attacking P.V. Narasimha Rao's government concerning the lack of efficiency regarding the investigation of her husband's assassins. She addressed meetings all over India (West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Haryana). Since many Congress leaders (Mani-Shankar Aiyer, K. Kumaramanzalam, Manita Bannerjee and S. Kalmadi) had quit the party, Sonia took over the party presidential helm and got M.S. Kesri to move out. Although the Congress results were low during the 1993 elections, Sonia Gandhi was considered as a serious rival by political friends and foes alike. In her "probable" future rise to Indian prime ministership she had to counter however, one of the main disadvantages that was exploited to the full by people from within and without the Party, namely her foreign origins.

From Congress presidentship to Lok Sabha opposition leadership.

After her election as the Congress Party President, Sonia Gandhi surprisingly resigned due to an open revolt addressed against her Italian origins by Congress Party members (P.A. Sangma, Sharad Parvar and Tariz Anwar) in an open letter to her on May 15. However, this was considered by many political observers as a political ploy because she withdrew her resignation on May 25 at an emergency national convention of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in New Delhi.

Religion and Nationality.

Despite Sonia Gandhi's naturalising herself as an Indian, she has had to face the obstacle of her foreign and Catholic origins which were taken up as an issue by her opponents. If Italy allows dual citizenship, India acknowledges only one citizenship. Certain members of the Indian Church have even declared that she is not a practising Catholic (she had a Hindu marriage and observed Hindu customs). Generally speaking (and legally too) Indians of all religions have held political posts, however Sonia Gandhi's Italian origins and Catholic religion have been unfortunately used as a political tool against her.

Nonetheless Sonia Gandhi was unanimously elected as the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party on October 13, 1999. In her address to the CPP members she said that she wanted the opposition to be constructive and express its disagreement with governance policies, programmes or misgovernance when the national interest demanded such an attitude. She declared that important issues such as Kargil, CTBT would be taken to Parliament.

Lok Sabha Opposition Leader.

Before being sworn in as Opposition Leader on 20 October 1999, along with the dominant national B.J.P. party and its allies leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi's electoral fight highlights the role of women in recent Indian politics.

If among most Indian political leaders Indira Gandhi stands out as the most prominent woman, Sonia Gandhi is apparently a serious rival to be reckoned with for the governing party, albeit without her mother-in-law's political charisma and astuteness. On the one hand, contrary to all expectations, and to the surprise of many, she announced her decision to contest her parliamentary seat not from Amethi (North of India) but from Bellary in Karnataka (South of India). Indira Gandhi had returned to power from Chikmagalur (in the same State) after the 1978 emergency. This induced the B.J.P. to provide their own feminine candidate, Sushma Swaraj (Minister for Broadcasting) to run from the same constituency, and the crude slogan of a "Deshi Naari" (Indian National) against "Videshi Naari" (Foreign Lady) came into existence as a political gambit. 

(<http.//www.telegraphindia.com/archive>).

Sonia Gandhi finally emerged as the victorious Opposition leader (and retained the Amethi seat instead of Bellary), despite poor showing by the Congress on the national scale.

To her credit, she has brought up critical issues - the Babri Mosque incident, the Bofors' scandal, aggression against Sikhs after her mother-in-laws's assassination —and she has the formidable task of rallying not only varying parties within the Congress, but also within the Opposition. The latter includes the left and certain peasant parties such as the Samajwad Party.

On 25 May 1999 the All India Congress Committee (AICC) declared that they had decided to propose Sonia Gandhi as the party's prime ministerial candidate for the forthcoming elections with stability and secularism as prime poll issues. The resolution was moved by Nagaland chief minister S.C. Jamir at the AICC session. They dismissed the attacks against Sonia Gandhi's foreign origins as a "non-issue" and stated that raising such issues went against the country's traditional tolerance and secularism(India Express. Com - Elections 99).

We shall conclude the above appraisal with an overview of the dynastic tendency manifested in Indian politics.

Dynastic Politics.

If three members of the Nehru family have already been presidents of the Congress Party and Prime Ministers of India (J. Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi), Arun Nehru (source: <http://www.allindia.com/arunnehru/apr19.htm>) observes that a similar tendency was noted in other states too. 

Indian States : some prominent examples are cited below.

• In Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah succeeded his father.
• Haryana - the Tan dynasty fights the Bansi Lal family.
• Punjab and Himachal Pradesh - Badel Jr. becomes minister of state while his father is chief minister.
• Bihar - because the chief minister Laloo Yadav was accused of malpractices, his wife Rabri Devi becomes chief minister.
• Maharashtra - The Bal Thakeray dynasty rule is observed.
• Andhra Pradesh - the famed actor NTR, his wife and son-in-law are prominent political leaders who upstage each other.
• Karnataka and Kerala - the "Gowda" dynasty rule is represented by father and son..

- Dynastic Politics. Arun Nehru.<http://www.allindia.com/arunnehru/apr19.htm>

- The Economic Times Survey "Your top-of-the-mind-response". The Sonia-Factor: Result.