The leader of India's ruling party and head of its political dynasty, Sonia Gandhi, is to undergo surgery in the United States and will leave her son jointly in charge, a spokesman said Thursday. Gandhi, 64, is to have an operation for an unspecified condition, ruling Congress Party spokesman Janardhan Dwivedi told AFP, refusing to give further details.
"On the advice of her doctors, she travelled abroad and she is likely to be away for two to three weeks," Dwivedi said, adding that she would have the surgery in two to three days. India's Tehelka news magazine said on microblogging site Twitter that Gandhi was admitted Thursday to New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the world's largest private cancer center according to the hospital website. Italian-born Gandhi is the widow of assassinated former premier Rajiv Gandhi and widely seen as India's most powerful politician, with her key power-broking position as Congress Party president. Dwivedi said that in her absence, Gandhi had appointed a four-member group to handle the day-to-day running of the Congress Party - including her son Rahul Gandhi, who is tipped as a future prime minister.
In January 2009, current prime minister Manmohan Singh underwent heart bypass surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the Indian capital New Delhi. The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has ruled India for most of is post-independence history, with three members of the family becoming prime minister. Sonia Gandhi holds total sway within the Congress and is credited with crafting the strategies that gave the party back-to-back general election victories in 2004 and 2009. She will miss the start of a crucial session of parliament for the scandal-plagued government which intends to introduce draft laws on a range of key areas, including corruption, land acquisition and food security.