Sonia Gandhi Recalls Why She Turned Down The PM Post | Rahul, Priyanka’s Fears Over Her Becoming PM

Sonia Gandhi had told her children months before the 2004 Lok Sabha election that she would "absolutely not" become prime minister. Yet, confronted by alliance leaders who refused to accept her decision after the Congress-led coalition's victory, she briefly surrendered with a barely audible "theek hai". Hours later, after an angry intervention by her son Rahul Gandhi and a private struggle over duty, danger and belonging, she returned to her original position. She would not take the job. Sonia Gandhi has described for the first time the turmoil behind one of India's most consequential political decisions in her memoir, 'Belonging: A Journey of Love', released today. Her memoir shows she refused the possibility of heading the top post after a lot of thought and that she had taken a very complicated decision. It had pressure from alliance partners, opposition from her children and a night during which she weighed her responsibility to the Congress against a decision she believed she had already made.