Sonia Gandhi to undergo surgery abroad

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Sonia Gandhi, India’s ruling  Congress party chief and the country’s most powerful politician,  will undergo surgery abroad, possibly in the United States, for  an undisclosed medical condition and could be out for two to  three weeks.
The absence of the 64-year-old figurehead of India’s most  prominent family dynasty may further hamper the Congress-led  coalition government, which is already seen as rudderless amid a  raft of corruption scandals and public fury over high inflation.
It could also accelerate the rise of her son, Rahul, one of  a quartet of people appointed to take charge while she is away  and considered to be India’s prime minister-in-waiting.
“Generally her condition is satisfactory but her operation  has not taken place as yet,” Janardan Dwivedi, a general  secretary of the party, told reporters.
In a sign of the confusion amid the surprise announcement,  Dwivedi first told reporters that she had already undergone  surgery, before correcting himself. He said the surgery would be  abroad and local media said it could be in the United States.
The Italian-born Gandhi is the leading figure of a family  that has ruled the country for much of India’s independence,  holding together the biggest national party through electoral  troubles and scandals in this country of 1.2 billion people.
Her leftist leanings have proved a strong influence over a  government officially led by the more reformist Prime Minister  Manmohan Singh and she has pushed pro-poor policies such as food  subsidies and guaranteed employment for villagers.
She nominated Singh as prime minister in 2004 and is widely  considered to be more powerful than him, governing India from  behind the scenes from her leafy bungalow in the capital, New  Delhi.
Her son Rahul has increasingly taken on a national political  role, gaining headlines for his defence of farmers protesting  land acquisition for industry and infrastructure and seen as a  champion of the poor visiting small hamlets and spending the  night in villages.
“It is rather unusual. But it looks like a move to prepare  Rahul Gandhi for his ultimate coronation,” said Amulya Ganguli,  a political analyst.
Sonia Gandhi’s family has been at the tragic centre of  India’s history. Her husband, Rajiv, and mother-in-law Indira,  were both assassinated. Indira Gandhi’s father, Jawaharlal  Nehru, was India’s first prime minister.
The daughter of a Turin builder who married into India’s  first family more than 30 years ago, Gandhi swept to power in  2004 on a wave of anger among the country’s hundreds of millions  of poor, who voted out the Hindu nationalist government after  feeling left out of an economic boom.
Despite being re-elected in 2009, the Congress party-led  government has suffered from a string of corruption scandals and  high food inflation, and her leadership has been increasingly  questioned as being out of touch.