Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has revealed in her newly released memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, how she decided against becoming prime minister after the Congress-led UPA won the 2004 Lok Sabha election, and why she chose Manmohan Singh for the top post. The memoir, which hit bookstores on Tuesday, revisits a decision that shaped the first UPA government and includes her discussions with senior Congress leaders and her final conversation with son Rahul Gandhi before she announced her choice.
Sonia recalled hearing an inner voice as she resolved to decline the post. “Sonia, be true to yourself,” she wrote in a post on X, quoting an excerpt published by The Indian Express. “You’ve always known it. Just leave it!” In the book, she says she woke a few hours later, went to Rahul’s room and told him she would stick to her stand. He hugged her and said, “It’s the right decision.”
She also describes entering a Congress Parliamentary Party meeting to thunderous applause, with MPs standing and thumping the wooden ledges in front of them. After deciding not to take the post, Sonia says she looked for someone who could lead the government. Several senior Congress leaders were qualified, she writes, but Manmohan Singh stood out as a person “above reproach” with a deep understanding of governance.
Sonia cited Singh’s experience as finance minister in the early 1990s, when he introduced economic reforms under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. She believed his appointment would reassure people about the UPA’s economic policies, especially as the alliance was supported by Communist parties. She also described him as not aligned to any party camp and said his integrity was “unquestionable.” After consulting senior colleagues, she proposed his name; Singh was approached privately and initially declined but was eventually persuaded to accept.
The memoir recounts May 18, 2004, when Sonia and Singh went to Rashtrapati Bhawan to stake the UPA’s claim to form the government. She describes an emotional return to the building where she had visited with Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. She says she did not discuss the prime ministership with Singh, who assumed, like everyone else, that she would take the post.
Sonia also recalls a 2010 conversation in which Pranab Mukherjee hinted at his long-held desire to become prime minister and suggested “it was time for a change at the top.” Rejecting criticism that she was a “back seat driver” during the UPA years, she says she respected Manmohan Singh’s position and believed it was her duty to defer to him, even when they disagreed.
The book also traces her life from childhood in post-war Italy to Cambridge, her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi, and her move to India. It revisits personal tragedies including Sanjay Gandhi’s death, Indira Gandhi’s assassination, and Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991. It also recounts Rahul Gandhi’s warning about his father’s security before the assassination.
Original Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/what-made-sonia-gandhi-turn-down-pm-post-after-upas-2004-victory-memoir-revisits-moment/articleshow/135699936.cms
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Publish Date: 2026-11-10 10:30:00
