1st LD Writethru: Indian opposition leader Sonia Gandhi announces retirement
Xinhua,December 15, 2017 Adjust font size:
NEW DELHI, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Indian main opposition Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi Friday said she would retire after her son Rahul Gandhi takes over the reins from her Saturday.
"My role now is to retire," the 71-year-old Italy-born politician told media in Delhi, putting to rest all speculation about her future role in India's grand old party.
The outgoing Congress chief stressed that her 47-year-old son has been playing "an active role" in the party for the past three years, saying he "is now ready to take over" the leadership role of the Congress party.
Rahul Gandhi will formally be made the Congress president Saturday, five days after being elected to the top party post.
Sonia Gandhi, the widow of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, has been of late being unwell and was hospitalised a number of times in the past three years.
In 2011, she went to the U.S. to receive surgery for an undisclosed medical condition.
Sonia Gandhi is the head of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, which has governed India for most of the time since independence from colonial Britain in 1947.
She herself has been at the helm of the party for the past 20 years, which lost the 2014 general elections to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Enditem