Journalism of Courage
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi looked normal like old times when she met senior party leaders at the Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting at 10,Janpath on Thursday. It was the first party meeting she attended after her return last Thursday from the US,where she underwent surgery for an undisclosed ailment.
Sonia had spoken to the Prime Minister on phone shortly after her return to the country on September 8. In subsequent days,she had held separate meetings with her political secretary Ahmed Patel,Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister AK Antony.
It was,however,the first time today that she presided over a party meeting to decide candidates for next year’s Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Candidates for 98 seats were discussed at the CEC meeting out of which 70 were finalised. After checking out a few details about the remaining 28 candidates,the party will announce its candidates for all 98 seats shortly,said sources. The party had announced its candidates for 73 seats earlier.
Congress sources said that although Sonia attended the CEC meeting,she would take rest for another week or two before resuming her routine works as party president.
According to Congress media department chairman Janardan Dwivedi,Sonia participated in the meeting happily and normally as she used to do earlier.
Like in the past,she came out of her house to welcome PM Manmohan Singh and see him off after the 65-minute long meeting. She discussed issues as she used to do earlier, he said. She is normally quite fine but as per the doctors advice it will take her some time to resume all the work she earlier did. It will take her a little more time to fully recover, he said.
She was looking quite happy and actively participated in the meeting. Nobody could make out that she has undergone an operation, said party general secretary Digvijaya Singh.
