SONIA GANDHI’S TRAIL AS CONGRESS CHIEF

March 14, 1998 takes over as Cong chief

April-May 2004

Within six years, leads the party to a win in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Her ‘Aam Aadmi’ slogan demolished the Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ‘India Shining’ campaign. Stuns everyone with her refusal to accept the PM’s post after the formation of United Progressive Alliance. Her choice, Manmohan Singh, succeeds Vajpayee as the Prime Minister

2004-2009

Not only was she able to revive the party when it was down and out, Sonia also brought the government’s focus back to welfare and secularism. She is often credited with taking the Congress to the left-of-the-centre position. As the chairperson of the national advisory council (NAC), she initiated several pro-poor welfare projects

March 2006

Sonia again shocks opponents by resigning from the LS and National Advisory Council in the wake of the office-ofprofit controversy

April-May 2009

Congress scores another Lok Sabha victory. Manmohan Singh continues as the Prime Minister despite clamour within the Congress party for Rahul Gandhi to take the charge of the UPA government

2004

Sonia named the third most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine and featured in Time’s list of

100 most influential people in the world in 2007. At one point of time during her tenure, the Congress was in power in 15 states

May 1999

Sonia quits as Congress chief after senior leaders Sharad Pawar, PA Sangma and Tariq Anwar challenged her projection as the party’s Prime Minister candidate, on the grounds of her foreign origin

April 1999

After the fall of the BJP-led NDA government, Sonia meets the President for time to form next government. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav decides not to support Congress as Sonia rejects his suggestion to name CPI(M)’s Jyoti Basu as PM candidate

April-May 2014

Congress suffers its worst ever electoral drubbing, winning just 44 seats

She often faced criticism for delaying the process of restructuring of the Congress, a highly centralised leader-driven party, due to her refusal to disturb status quo