Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended his greetings to Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on her 79th birthday. PM Modi posted on X, “Birthday greetings to Smt. Sonia Gandhi Ji. May she be blessed with a long life and good health.”
While wishes poured in for Sonia Gandhi from different leaders, PM Modi’s greeting stood out amid an increasingly polarised political climate, marking a moment of civility between the country’s two principal national parties.
Birthday greetings to Smt. Sonia Gandhi Ji. May she be blessed with a long life and good health.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 9, 2025
Sonia Gandhi, born in 1946 to Stefano and Paola Maino in Orbassano in Italy, spent her early years in a Roman Catholic family alongside her sisters, Nadia and Anoushka. Her life took a decisive turn in 1964 when she moved to Cambridge for her studies. It was there that she met Rajiv Gandhi, then an engineering student. The two married in the year 1968 in a Hindu ceremony, marking the beginning of her journey into the world of Indian public life.
Gandhi formally joined the Indian National Congress in 1997 and rose swiftly within the organisation. She assumed the party presidency in 1998 after replacing Sitaram Kesri. At that time, the Congress held power in only three states, namely Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Mizoram. Under her stewardship, the party went on to secure victory in two consecutive general elections (2004 and 2009) and governed as many as 16 states during the 2000s, before facing a sharp nationwide decline from 2014 onward.
She stepped down as Congress president in 2017 after holding the post for nearly two decades, the longest tenure in the party’s history. Her son Rahul Gandhi succeeded her in the role.