STORY OF SONIA GANDHI IN 2004
This chapter
deals with the happenings after 2004 election. It was the matter after the
results of 2004 general election, when congress party won the battle and
surprisingly Sonia Gandhi decided not to hold the post of prime minister of
India. During that time people were demonstrating against her that how can an
Italian lady cum non- Indian lady became prime minister of India. But Sonia
Gandhi played a master stroke to stop all her opposition leaders by deciding
not to hold the post of prime minister of India. This is the story during 2004,
prior to that it was NDA which was a coalition government and ruled for six
years. No one had thought that Sonia Gandhi led United Progressive
Alliance(UPA) will won the election. After the election the leaders of NDA strongly
agitated that Sonia Gandhi will not be the next prime minister of India. By
deciding not to hold the prime minister post of India, question often comes
into mind that whether it was a political strategy or it is the offering nature
of Sonia Gandhi. to understand the whole behind this, there is a need to know
the whole background of Sonia Gandhi and how she became the chief of oldest
political party congress. Sonia Gandhi
was just 21 when for the first time she landed herself in India. In that year she
tied the holy knot with Rajiv Gandhi and from Sonia Maino she became Sonia
Gandhi. during that time, she didn’t even think that one day the surname Gandhi
will made her as the most powerful women of India. At the initial stage she was
just the wife of Rajiv Gandhi and bride of Gandhi family. She was inculcation
all the rituals, traditions and cultures of Gandhi family during her initial
Indian days. Her address in India was 1 Safdarjung Road in New Delhi, which was
the residence of prime minister and her mother in law Indira Gandhi’s
residence. That residence was the centre and hub of India’s politics. At the initial
days of her India stay she was trying to use to the systems of Gandhi family
and in a very short span of time frame she could able to won the faith of
Indira Gandhi. during those days Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi were living a
different life in their own way but due to some unexpected incidents both of
them entered into politics. It was when Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane crash in
1980. Due to that incident a lot of changes came into Sonia Gandhi’s life.
After that incident Rajiv Gandhi into politics and Sonia Gandhi also entered to
help his better half. And after the demise of Indira Gandhi in the year 1984
Rajiv Gandhi became the next prime minister of India, but Sonia didn’t wish
that Rajiv Gandhi to be the prime minister because she had a fear that the same
thing may happen with Rajiv Gandhi, which happened with her mother in law. And her fear turned into real sense after
seven years and in 1991 election campaigning Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a
suicide bomber. After Rajiv Gandhi’ assassination a big question raised before
congress party that who will be the next leader of congress party. Basing on
which Gandhi family member Congress party will move forward in the politics.
Then the answer came before the congress party and it was Sonia Gandhi but
whether Sonia Gandhi was ready to enter into the active politics after the
shocking incident in her life. But Sonia Gandhi refused to enter into politics
in 1991 and after her decision PV Narasimha Rao hold the post of prime minister
of India. Apart from PV Narasimha Rao, there were many congress leaders who
were interested and keen to hold the supremo post of congress party and India.
Among all the leaders who were keen to be the supremo of congress party, Sharad
Pawar was the strongest candidate by that time, he was no more a regional
leader of Maharashtra. But PV Narasimha Rao took away the battle into his side
and he became the supremo. But when PV Narasimha Rao led congress party lost
the election battel in 1996 again Sharad Power tried to capture the supremo
post of congress party but due to the support of PV Narasimha Rao, Sitaram
Keshari became the head of congress party. Sitaram Keshari was aiming himself
as the prime minister of India but on the other side the status of congress
party was going down and down. Finally, Sonia Gandhi entered into active
politics in the year 1997 and after few time she came to the front door of
politics. She decided to campaign for the party because during that point of
time congress party was going under a serious crisis. Even if she was new to
the field but she had closed experienced the political skills of one of the
best leader ever in I Congress party who was Indira Gandhi. she was quite aware
of the fact that in politics it is quite more important to take action and
decision in the most appropriate time. When she entered into the active
politics of congress party, Sitaram Keshari was in doubt that Sonia Gandhi may
capture the supremo post of congress party. And that happened as well in 1998
when Sonia Gandhi became the president of congress party. But she firstly fought election from Amethi
of UP and Billari of Karnataka in the year 1999 when BJP lost its majority. It
was for the first time when congress party project her as the candidate for
prime minister post. BJP started pointing out on the nationality of Sonia
Gandhi and BJP put a question mark before congress party that How can an
Italian individual became the prime minister of India. Susma Swaraj was
fighting against Sonia Gandhi from Billari of Karnataka and more importantly
Sonia Gandhi won against Susma Swaraj. Sonia Gandhi’s opposition also claimed
that how can the people of India accept the person who came to India in 1968
and became Indian citizen in the year 1983. Sonia Gandhi was just avoiding her
opposition’s claims but she was shocked when the party member also raised the
same issue in the congress party of whom she was the president. It was Sharad
Pawar who raised questions about the credibility of Sonia Gandhi to became the
prime minister of India. Because he had a fear that if Sonia Gandhi will become
prime minister for once then his dream will not be true at any cost and situation. But Sharad Pawar didn’t assume about the
aftermath of his move against Sonia Gandhi. and Sonia Gandhi played a tricky
political plan that she was known the fact that the whole of congress party
pleaded before her to hold the president post of congress party. So she resigned
from the president post because she knew the fact that this will stop all the
mouths which were shouting against her. After that a huge protest and agitation
was going on to cancel the resignation of Sonia Gandhi. all the people of
within congress party who were raising questions on the capabilities and
credibility of Sonia Gandhi, all of them were expelled from congress party.
After the CWC action on the three members who were raising question against
Sonia Gandhi, she taken back her resignation and hold the president post of
congress party. It was a big win for Sonia Gandhi and then she targeted Sharad
Pawar. She addressed a huge mass in May 1999 at Delhi and in that address she
responded to the questions raised by all her oppositions. It was a great
strategy for Sonia Gandhi which worked for as well and built a strong image of
Sonia Gandhi before the masses. After getting expelled from the congress party
Sharad Power, P Sangama, S Anwar formed National Congress Party (NCP) and
Sharad Power became the president of that party. But in 2004 election Sharad
Pawar became part of UPA of which Sonia Gandhi was the president of it. It was
from 1999 to 2004 when NDA government was ruling in the centre and Atal Bihari
Vajpayee was the prime minister but again in the 2004 election BJP raised the
foreign citizen issue before Sonia Gandhi. In 2004 election BJP was using two
main things for its campaigning one was India Shining and other was the issue
of foreign citizen issue of Sonia Gandhi. it was predicted that NDA government
will again come into power but when the result came out it was UPA to be in
power for the next term. In 2004 election congress backed 145 seats and became
the largest party, while BJP limited only to won 138 seats.in total UPA backed
218 seat, while NDA won 181 seats but due to the outside support from left
front it was UPA which formed its government in 2004. Then president gave
proposal to Sonia Gandhi to form the government. the name of Sonia Gandhi has
already been approved by congress cabinet committee but at that time Susma
Swaraj announced before media that she will give resignation from her
parliament membership if Sonia Gandhi will hold the post of prime minister.
With that announcement NDA leaders actively participated in protesting against
Sonia Gandhi’s prime ministership candidature. The clash of words between BJP
and congress went on like this and suddenly a news came from the power
corridors that Sonia will not be holding the prime minister post. Then as UPA
was a coalition government then a big question was raised before UPA that who
will be the right person to hold the post of prime minister of India. It was
after eight years that congress was on power, so congress party didn’t want to
have internal disturbances. So finally on 17th May 2004 Sonia Gandhi
called up all the congress MP to her house at Delhi for Tea and she made all
the MP to wait for two hours, in between she was talking to all other allied
party to UPA. After that Dr. Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherji came in and declared
that tomorrow morning Sonia Gandhi will going to meet the president of India.
After listening to that line of Dr. Manmohan Singh all the MP’s got sigh of
relief. Next day morning Sonia Gandhi went to President APJ Abdul Kalam’s
residence and Dr. Manmohan Singh also went with her to meet the president.
Suspense was at the peak as Sonia Gandhi was not expressing anything which she
was thinking during that moment. Finally, it was 18th May 2004, when
a cabinet meeting was held in the central hall of parliament and everyone was
waiting for the announcement that who is going to be the next prime minister of
India and it was live telecasted by Doordarshan. In that meeting she declared
that she will not be the next prime minister of India and after that declaration
all the MP’S were saying No No but she was stood on her decision. All the major
leaders were trying to convince Sonia Gandhi to became prime minister but Sonia
Gandhi didn’t change her decision. BJP claimed that it was not Sonia Gandhi’s
sacrifice that she didn’t became the prime minister but she was compelling to
take the decision that not to became the prime minister of India. But it didn’t
take much to decide the name of prime minister, because Sonia Gandhi has
already decided that Dr. Manmohan Singh will be the prime minister of India. It
was totally amazed the people of India that Dr. Manmohan Singh can become the
prime minister of India. He was a clean hearted politician, he was famous for
his righteousness and integrity. He didn’t involve on any sort of petty
politics in the party. That is the sole reason that Sonia Gandhi had a great
faith on him. Then there were two power house in Delhi, one was seven race
course road Prime minister’s residence and other was 10 Janpath where Sonia
Gandhi was living. Sonia Gandhi didn’t have the right to enter in the
government decision making process as she was the chairman of UPA. So National
Advisory Council(NAC) was formed under prime ministers supervision and Sonia
Gandhi became the chairperson of it. She got the ranking of a cabinet minister.
After becoming the chairperson of NAC, Sonia Gandhi was giving suggestions to
prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh regarding governance. It was NAC which
proposed MGNREGA and RTI. The opposition of that time claimed that it is not
the prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh who is running the government but it is
Sonia Gandhi who is indirectly running the government. while the opposition was
claiming about the presence of two power house in the centre but the congress
party was denying the fact. The opposition also claimed that Dr. Manmohan Singh
was the most weakest prime minister of India and he was a remote control prime
minister, which remote is in the hands of Sonia Gandhi and she controls the
whole government. There were no member in the congress party who can stand
against Sonia Gandhi.
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