Sonia Gandhi had finally said yes to PM post in 2004. Then Rahul Gandhi asked one question that changed the night

Sonia Gandhi has revealed that she initially agreed to become Prime Minister after Congress alliance leaders pressured her to accept the post following the 2004 election. She later changed her mind after Rahul Gandhi reacted angrily to her decision and she spent the night thinking about whether she should take up the post.

The next morning, she told Rahul that she would stick to her original decision, and he replied, “It’s the right decision.”

In an excerpt from her memoir Belonging, shared with The Indian Express, Sonia Gandhi recalls the hours before she decided to turn down the post and nominate Dr. Manmohan Singh instead.

Rahul Gandhi did not want her to become PM

Sonia writes that she had discussed the possibility of becoming prime minister with Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi months before the election. Both were against the idea because they had lived through the assassinations of their grandmother Indira Gandhi and father Rajiv Gandhi.

“Absolutely not!” Sonia recalled saying when asked if she would accept the post.

After the election, alliance leaders came to her home and tried to convince her to accept the position. Sonia says they surrounded her and refused to accept her decision.

“We will not take no for an answer,” one of them told her.

Feeling pressured, Sonia finally said, “Theek hai,” (“All right,”). The leaders immediately began congratulating her.

Priyanka, who had been standing outside a window, saw what was happening and rushed to find Rahul.

“She’s said yes to them! They’re all around her, she’s said yes!” Priyanka told him.

Rahul came to his mother and asked, “You said yes?”

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“They wouldn’t listen to me,” Sonia replied. “I don’t want to do it, you know I don’t. I was being pressurised.”

“Pressurised? You are being pressurised?” Rahul demanded. “What about us?”

Sonia changed her mind

Sonia says she spent the night thinking about the decision. She was also worried that her foreign origin would become a major political issue if she became prime minister.

“How could I agree to holding the office of prime minister knowing it could wound my country, the country that I loved? No, never!”

The next morning, she went to Rahul’s room and told him she had made up her mind.

“I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to stick to my stand,” she told him.

Rahul stepped towards her and put his arms around her. “It’s the right decision,” he said.

Sonia chose Manmohan Singh

Sonia still faced pressure from Congress MPs to reconsider. At the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting, she told them, “Today that voice tells me I must humbly decline this post.”

She then nominated Dr. Manmohan Singh as the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party.

Looking back at those days, Sonia writes, “The ordeal is finally over.”