Sonia Gandhi, Indias ruling Congress party chief and the countrys most powerful politician, will undergo surgery abroad, possibly in the United States, for an undisclosed medical condition and could be out for two to three weeks. The absence of the 64-year-old figurehead of Indias most prominent family dynasty may further hamper the Congress-led coalition government, which is already seen as rudderless amid a raft of corruption scandals and public fury over high inflation.
It could also accelerate the rise of her son, Rahul, one of a quartet of people appointed to take charge while she is away and considered to be Indias prime minister-in-waiting. "Generally her condition is satisfactory but her operation has not taken place as yet," Janardan Dwivedi, a general secretary of the party, told reporters.
In a sign of the confusion amid the surprise announcement, Dwivedi first told reporters that she had already undergone surgery, before correcting himself. He said the surgery would be abroad and local media said it could be in the United States. The Italian-born Gandhi is the leading figure of a family that has ruled the country for much of Indias independence, holding together the biggest national party through electoral troubles and scandals in this country of 1.2 billion people.