Sonia Gandhi born Edvige Antonia Albina Maino in Lusiana on 9 December 1946 is the Italian-born President of the Indian National Congress and the widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi. She also serves as the Chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance in the Lok Sabha and the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party.
An influential person in Indian politics, she was named the third most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine in the year 2004 and was ranked 6th in 2007. She was also named among the Time 100 most influential people in the world for the years 2007 and 2008.
Following the office of profit controversy, she had to surrender her membership to the Indian parliament but in 2007, she returned to the Lok Sabha after winning the by-election for Rae Bareilly by a margin of over 400,000 votes.