{"id":40790,"date":"2017-12-15T13:58:38","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T08:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/?p=40790"},"modified":"2017-12-15T14:29:24","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T08:59:24","slug":"with-rahul-as-congress-president-sonia-says-my-role-is-to-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/politics\/with-rahul-as-congress-president-sonia-says-my-role-is-to-retire\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonia says \u201cmy role is to retire\u201d, what next for Congress under Rahul"},"content":{"rendered":"
~By Puneet Nicholas Yadav<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Congress sources say Sonia Gandhi will continue to advise her son on crucial party matters, help him reach out to potential allies<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With her son, Rahul Gandhi<\/a> set to formally take over as Congress president\u00a0on Saturday<\/span><\/span>, Sonia Gandhi has hinted that she will now retire from politics.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy role is to retire\u201d, was Sonia\u2019s cryptic reply to questions by television channel NDTV\u00a0on Friday<\/span><\/span>, as she reached the Parliament to attend the first day of the winter session.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It remains to be seen whether Sonia\u2019s remark would actually translate into her retirement from active politics and pave the way for Rahul firmly and comprehensively taking over command of the 131-year-old Congress party. Besides being Congress president \u2013 a post that she has held for 19 consecutive years since 1998 \u2013 Sonia Gandhi is currently also the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) which includes the party\u2019s members from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the years before Sonia took over as party president, the CPP leader would be the Congress\u2019 designated Leader of the Lok Sabha (a position held either by the Prime Minister or the leader of Opposition, depending on which position the Congress held in the House). The party would also have a Leader of the Rajya Sabha. After Sonia became the Congress president, the party constitution was amended and the Leader of the Lok Sabha as well as of the Rajya Sabha were made to report to Sonia as the CPP leader \u2013 giving her total control of the party leadership.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sonia Gandhi<\/a> is also the current Lok Sabha MP from the Nehru-Gandhi bastion of Rae Bareli. It is unclear whether her decision to retire would mean that she will no longer contest from the seat too. Her health has been a cause of worry for nearly a decade now and while the exact details of what ails her have been closely guarded by the Congress party, she has been increasingly in and out of hospital for the past few years \u2013 the reasons for her hospitalisation, as declared by the party on different occasions, ranging from asthma, fever, food poisoning, chest congestion, et al.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There is some speculation that if Sonia does indeed vacate her claim to Rae Bareli in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Rahul could contest from the constituency while his sister, Priyanka Gandhi, could be finally roped in by the party to contest from Amethi. Both Amethi and Rae Bareli have been pocketboroughs of the Nehru-Gandhi family for decades; sending to parliament the late Feroze Gandhi, the late Sanjay Gandhi, former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi<\/a> and Rajiv Gandhi.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n