Congress hails Gandhi as `unquestioned leader'

India's Congress party yesterday welcomed Italian-born Ms Sonia Gandhi back as its president at a massive gathering of its members in New Delhi and said it would field her as its prime ministerial candidate in September's general elections.

At the All Indian Congress Working Committee rally Ms Gandhi attacked opposition parties and three senior party colleagues - expelled last week - for questioning her Italian origins and lack of political experience which led her to resign as party president in a fit of pique last week.

Speaking first in Hindi, and then in English to an ecstatic crowd of nearly 1,400 party members, Ms Gandhi said every drop of her blood belonged to India.

"India accepted me 31 years ago when I came here as [prime minister] Indira Gandhi's daughter-in-law. I got married here, became a mother here and became a widow here," she said.

The 53-year old widow of the late prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, urged party workers to serve the nation and fulfil the unfinished task of their ancestors. "Those doubting my nationality will get a befitting reply in the elections," she told the cheering crowd who repeatedly shouted "Hail Sonia Gandhi!".

Congress party leaders also adopted a resolution declaring Ms Gandhi their "unquestioned leader" and dismissed as a "nonissue" the controversy over her foreign origins. Indian laws do not discriminate against non-natural citizens, it stated.

Analysts said Ms Gandhi was following a predictable pattern and there was little doubt that she would not return as party president, especially as the dissidents within the party had been expelled for six years.

Ever since her resignation on May 17th, thousands of party workers had besieged Ms Gandhi's house in Delhi, threatening to immolate themselves and go on an indefinite hunger strike if she did not reconsider her decision and continue as Congress president.

"Whoever questions her leadership is beyond the pale and must be shown the door," declared yesterday's Statesman newspaper in a scathing editorial. "She is constantly told that she is the leader because she is Rajiv's widow and the world owes her a living."

Opposition parties called Ms Gandhi's resignation a sham, geared to a massive "public relations exercise before the elections". The Congress's main rival in the elections is the Hindu nationalist-led coalition that lost a confidence motion by one vote in parliament last month. Soon after it began attacking Ms Gandhi's foreign origin and the fact that she became an Indian 16 years after her marriage and only after her husband entered politics.

Meanwhile, the three Congress leaders expelled from the party last week for challenging Ms Gandhi have announced the formation of a new political party which could hurt the political fortunes of her party. Several Congress leaders had already started leaving the party to join the rebels, especially in western Maharashtra state of which Bombay is the capital.