The leader of India’s ruling party, Sonia Gandhi, was recovering Friday after undergoing “successful” surgery for an undisclosed medical condition in the United States, a spokesman said.
“The surgery is over,” Congress Party spokesman Janardhan Dwivedi said, adding that the “surgeon had indicated that the operation was successful.”
The 64-year-old Gandhi, widely seen as India’s most powerful politician, was recovering in an intensive care unit. The name and location of the hospital has not been released.
“As this is a personal matter that pertains to her health and medical treatment, her family requests that her privacy be respected,” Dwivedi said.
India’s Tehelka news magazine said on microblogging site Twitter that Gandhi was admitted Thursday to New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the world’s largest private cancer centre according to the hospital website.
The Congress Party broke the surprise news of Gandhi’s impending surgery on Thursday morning and has since blocked all queries regarding the nature of her illness.
The Italian-born Gandhi is the widow of assassinated former premier Rajiv Gandhi and wields enormous influence from her key power-broking position as Congress Party president.
In her absence, she appointed a four-member group to handle the day-to-day running of the Congress Party — including her son Rahul Gandhi, who is tipped as a future prime minister.
An expected absence of two to three weeks, means she will miss a crucial session of parliament for the scandal-plagued government which intends to introduce draft laws on a range of key areas, including corruption, land acquisition and food security.
Gandhi’s no-show for the opening of the new session on Monday was noted in the Indian media but explained by an apparent “viral infection.”
Sonia Gandhi recovering from ‘successful’ surgery
