Sonia recovering after successful surgery: Congress

The Congress President and UPA Chairperson, Ms Sonia Gandhi, underwent a successful surgery on Friday and was recovering in the intensive care unit.

Issuing a brief statement by the party here, the Congress General-Secretary, Mr Janardhan Dwivedi, said “The surgery is over...the surgeon has indicated that the operation was successful.”

He, however, refused to divulge the nature of Ms Gandhi's ailment or the country where the surgery took place.

“This is a personal matter that pertains to her health and medical treatment. Her family requests that her privacy be respected,” Mr Dwivedi said. Her children, Mr Rahul Gandhi and Ms Priyanka Gandhi, and son-in-law Mr Robert Vadra are with her, he said.

However, the buzz in political circles was that Ms Gandhi was admitted in a US hospital. Sources said she was reportedly being treated at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. The hospital, however, has refused to confirm or deny that she was admitted there.

Meanwhile, political circles were rife with speculation about the party's succession plan, mainly spurred by Ms Gandhi's selection of a group of four – Mr Gandhi, Mr A K Antony, Mr Dwivedi and Mr Ahmed Patel — to take charge of the party in her absence.

Sources attached a lot of significance to Mr Gandhi's name figuring in the group as well as the absence of two senior Congress leaders — the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee.

When asked, Congress spokesperson, Mr Manish Tiwari, had said on Thursday that “they (the Prime Minister and Finance Minister) are senior members who have been active in the organisation for long”.

COMMENT NOW