Sonia turns 66 Friday, plans low-key celebrations
December 8th, 2011 - 10:04 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, Dec 8 (IANS) Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who turns 66 Friday, is likely to have a low-key birthday celebration, party sources here said.
Gandhi, who underwent a surgery in August abroad for an undisclosed ailment, may receive only a few visitors on her birthday.
However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior leaders are likely to greet her at her 10 Janpath residence, party sources added.
Meanwhile, Gandhi has asked partymen “to avoid inconvenience to the public” while celebrating her birthday, Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi told reporters.
She has appealed to partymen from other states to avoid travelling to New Delhi on that day, he added.
Gandhi is the longest serving president of the 125-year-old Indian National Congress. She has been successively elected president of the Congress since 1998, when she entered active politics.
Born Antonia Edvige Albina Maino in Lusiana - a village in Veneto in Italy - on Dec 9, 1946, she married former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi - then a student in Cambridge - in 1968.
Gandhi came to India in 1968 and became an Indian citizen in 1983.
Leading the Congress back to power in 2004 after a gap of six years, she declined the offer of prime ministership. Instead, she has been chairman of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) since then.
Gandhi is also chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC).
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