Sonia Gandhi is an Indian politician of Italian descent. A member of the Nehru–Gandhi family, she is a former president of the Indian National Congress.

Having taken over as the party leader in 1998, seven years after her husband's assassination, she remained in office for a record nineteen years.

Sonia came across Rajiv at The Varsity Restaurant, where she was serving as a part-time waitress. Rajiv, at that time, was enrolled for an engineering degree in the University of Cambridge.

Sonia married Rajiv in 1968.After marrying him in 1968, she took up Indian citizenship and started living with her mother-in-law, the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, at their New Delhi residence.

The couple had two children, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra. It is said that even though the couple belonged to the influential Nehru family, they avoided total involvement in politics.

But then there came a time when Rajiv entered politics after the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash on 23 June 1980. Soon Rajiv became the 6th Prime Minister of India from 1984 to 1989.

And being the Prime Minister's wife, Sonia acted as Rajiv's official administrator. She also accompanied Rajiv on a number of state visits.

After Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991, Sonia Gandhi refused to become Prime Minister. The Indian National Congress party then decided to make P. V. Narasimha Rao the leader and subsequently Prime Minister.

When the Congress' fortunes continued to reduce, and the party lost the 1996 elections, Sonia joined the party as a primitive member in the Calcutta Plenary Session in 1997 and then became the party leader in the year 1998.

In August 2011, she underwent successful surgery for cervical cancer.The surgery took place in the United States. She then returned to India and spoke about her son, Rahul, taking a larger role in the party.

Sonia was listed as the 9th most powerful woman by Forbes Magazine and in 2013, Sonia Gandhi was ranked 21st among world's most powerful people.

Sonia Gandhi was listed as one of the fifty best-dressed over-50s by the Guardian in 2013. Sonia was also named among the Time's 100 most influential people in the world for the years 2007 and 2008.

New Statesman listed Sonia Gandhi at number 29 in their annual survey of the world's 50 most influential figure in the year 2010.

Some of the books featuring Sonia Gandhi are Sonia Gandhi – An Extraordinary Life, An Indian Destiny, a biography written by Rani Singh, Sonia Gandhi: Tryst with India by Nurul Islam Sarkar, The Red Sari: A Dramatized Biography of Sonia Gandhi (El Sari Rojo) by Javier Moro, Sonia: A Biography by Rasheed Kidwai and The Accidental Prime Minister by Sanjaya Baru.

Sonia has always proved that she is the heroine of her life and not the victim. We are blessed to have Sonia Gandhi in our country India.