Sonia Gandhi’s Income & Total Net Worth

With an approximate net worth of $2 billion, Sonia Gandhi is the president of the Indian National Congress, since 1998. She is the widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated. Her wealth not only comes from politics but is also inherited as she is connected from one of the most influential families of India, the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Sonia Gandhi’s Career

Sonia Gandhi was born in Italy in a Roman-Catholic family with the name Edvige Antonia Albina Maino. She met Rajiv Gandhi the in the city of Cambridge and they both married in 1968. Sonia’s political career started after the assassination of her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, and the entrance of her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, in politics.

When Rajiv Gandhi died, Sonia refused to become the Prime Minister. However, in 1997, she became the primary member of the Congress Party. In 1999, she stood up for the Lok Sabha elections from Bellary, in Karnataka, and Amethi, in Uttar Pradesh. She defeated veteran leader, Sushma Swaraj, in Bellary. She was re-elected as the member of Lok Sabha, in 2004 and 2009, from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. In 1999, Sonia was selected as the Leader of the Opposition of the 13th Lok Sabha, and she also holds the record of serving on the post of Congress President for ten years, successively. In 2006, Sonia resigned from the Lok Sabha and also as chairperson of the National Advisory Council. She has also played an important role in making the Right to Information Act and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme into law.

Honors and Recognition

Sonia Gandhi’s recognition and honors include her degree of Honorary Doctorate in Literature from the University of Madras, Honorary Doctorate degree from the Brussels University, and Order of King Leopold, in 2006, from the Government of Belgium. According to the Forbes magazine, Sonia was ranked sixth among the “Most Powerful Woman in the World”, in 2007 and in 2010, she was the 9th “Most Powerful Person”.

A biography, named as “Sonia Gandhi – An Extraordinary Life, An Indian Destiny”, has also been launched in 2011.