'Temperamentally, they are quite alike.' 'Ahmed Patel avoided the limelight and was not a power seeker.' 'The Gandhis too are not power wielders, but trustees of power.'
Sources said Sonia Gandhi referred to Azad and others twice during her brief address and the issues raised by them.
She was down with viral fever and doctors advised her to be under medical supervision.
Sonia Gandhi has criticised the Modi government's silence on the assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader, arguing it raises doubts about India's foreign policy direction and credibility.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday resigned from all party positions, including its primary membership, delivering another blow to the embattled party that has seen a series of leaders leave it.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay concluded his first official visit to Delhi, meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to discuss key state issues.
The situation in the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party appears to be grim with 21 leaders (9 Members of Legislative Assembly and 12 Members of Parliament) expressing their open support to former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa in case he decides to quit the party. But what has taken everyone by surprise is the open praise lavished upon Congress president Sonia Gandhi by Yeddyurappa.
Inaugurating the new terminal for the Srinagar international airport from where the first direct flight to Dubai was undertaken, Sonia Gandhi said, " The people of Jammu and Kashmir have shown their faith in democracy by an overwhelming participation in the recently held assembly elections in the state."
Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Gandhi is stable and will be in the hospital for a few days.
'It was my first day in office, so you cannot blame me for the missing photos.' 'I had to join the office and sit on the chair at a particular mahurat time.'
Her medical condition was stable and she has been advised rest.
China's ruling Communist Party on Tuesday confirmed that Congress president Sonia Gandhi has accepted President Hu Jintao's invitation to visit the country, saying the event will further enhance friendship between leaders of the two countries.
The meeting also includes some of Sonia Gandhi's close associates and is the first effort by the Congress leadership for a reproachment with those who raised questions over the leadership.
Asked what role she will assume after Rahul Gandhi takes over the reins of the party, Sonia Gandhi told media persons in the Parliament complex: "My role is to retire."
The Congress on Monday said it welcomed the reported move as the party has been raising the demand for long.
Several top Congress leaders including party general secretary organisation K C Venugopal, Sachin Pilot, Randeep Surjewala and Shashi Tharoor, wished the former party chief on her birthday.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi was discharged from the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi on Monday evening and was advised rest at home, the party said.
The Congress president had left on August 23 to visit her ailing mother, who was in her 90s.
She was born in 1946 in the town of Or Orbassano, near Turin (Italy) and married Rajiv Gandhi in 1968.
'You have all the qualities to become a world champion.'
The original Mrs Gandhi -- Indira -- had delivered a second successive election victory for the Congress in 1971 but before that she had to win a war. The reigning Mrs Gandhi -- Sonia -- has also led the Congress to consecutive poll successes (in 2004 and 2009) but she hasn't had to go so far as to fight an external war, though there have been many domestic battles, writes Kidwai, whose second book on Sonia Gandhi, 24 Akbar Road, is soon to be released by Hachette Books
'The BJP has all the instruments with them and they do have a sense of purpose, so I don't think there will be a challenge.'
Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has been at loggerheads with the chief minister, attacking him on issues like the alleged delay in the completion of a probe into the 2015 desecration of Sikh texts and the subsequent police firing on protesters.
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"We met Gandhi and sought her intervention on the Maharashtra government's decision to ban dance bars," Bharatiya Bar Girls Union chief Varsha Kale said.
For the second consecutive day on Friday, several Indian journalists went to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre on 68th Street and York Avenue in Manhattan, New York, where Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has reportedly undergone a surgery
The meeting came a day after Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh met the Congress chief for a tie-up in Uttar Pradesh.
There was a celebratory mood outside her Delhi residence.
'Our leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, are in touch with all Opposition parties, including the DMK and the AAP.'
'The way Congressman feared her, they don't fear her now. That is why you see how she took time to take action in Andhra, Maharashtra and corruption in the Commonwealth Games,' says Arun Shourie.
Her move comes after doctors advised her to get away from the heavy pollution in the national capital in view of her chronic chest infection, party insiders said.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who has been spearheading the UPA's ambitious Food Security Bill, left the Lok Sabha while the voting was underway on Monday night on various amendments moved by the Opposition.
The 77-year-old former Congress president is set to enter the Upper House for the first time from Rajasthan.
The Congress and BJP are engaged in a political spat over the implementation of the Women's Reservation Bill and its proposed link to delimitation, with Rahul Gandhi urging unconditional implementation of the 2023 law and Kiren Rijiju highlighting the constitutional requirement for delimitation based on post-2026 census figures.
'Both Rahul and Modi are the same in the way they run their parties. Modi too wants faceless people and so does Rahul Gandhi.'
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi Tuesday arrived in Rae Bareli, on her first visit to the constituency she had resigned as member of Parliament, to a rapturous welcome from her supporters and party activists.
She is reportedly suffering a stomach ache, a source close to Gandhi said.
