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India's opposition leader Sonia Gandhi falls ill

Published:Tuesday | August 2, 2016 | 12:41 PM
AP
India’s Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi greets her supporters during a roadshow ahead of upcoming Uttar Pradesh state Assembly elections in Varanasi, India, yesterday. Gandhi could not complete the roadshow and had to cut short her visit.

Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi falls ill

NEW DELHI (AP):

Sonia Gandhi, leader of India's opposition Congress party, yesterday cut short a political rally in northern India due to a high fever, a party official said.

Spokesman Randeep Surjewala said Gandhi has been suffering from fever for the past few days, but decided to campaign for state legislature elections to be held in Uttar Pradesh state early next year.

During the day, she led a huge procession of her party supporters through the streets of Varanasi, a district represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India's Parliament.

ELECTION TRIUMPHS

Gandhi is the Italian-born widow of slain former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. After his death, she entered politics reluctantly, but led the Congress party to successive election triumphs in 2004 and 2009. But her party lost power to Modi's Hindu nationalist party in 2014.

Prime Minister Modi said in a tweet Tuesday, "I pray for her quick recovery and good health."

The Congress party has long kept a veil over Gandhi's personal life despite her immense influence. She flew to the United States for a surgery in 2011, but the party never provided more than cursory information about her condition.

She has been visiting the United States for regular check-ups since then.

In 2014, she was hospitalised in New Delhi for treatment of lower respiratory tract infection. A year earlier, Gandhi was rushed to a New Delhi hospital for a few hours after she fell ill during a debate in Parliament.