2008-08-07 08:34:03 - Sonia Gandhi the head of iconic political first family of India,President of All India Congress party,lineage of Nehru and Indira the former Prime Minister of India.

Congress and Communist Party of China (CPC) are set to institutionalise their relationship when Sonia Gandhi undertakes a visit to Beijing from Thursday.
UPA Chairperson, along with Rahul Gandhi, have been invited by the CPC leadership to attend the inaugural ceremony of Beijing Olympics on Friday, a gesture that demonstrates the significance China accords to her.

Priyanka Gandhi and her husband Robert

Vadra as also Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma will accompany the Congress president on her three-day visit.

During her second visit to China in a year, Sonia Gandhi will meet Vice President Xi Jin Ping, who is tipped to succeed President Hu Jintao, and discuss bilateral ties and ways to further improve these.

During the meeting in the Great Hall of People, the two leaders will also discuss ways to boost party-to-party ties.

An MoU is expected to be signed by Gandhi and Xi, who is also member of the Standing Committee of CPC, to provide for institutionalised relationship between the two parties through regular exchanges and dialogue.

Sonia Gandhi and Rahul will also attend a banquet to be hosted by President Hu on Thursd.

She is the Chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance in the Lok Sabha, and the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party. Forbes magazine named her third most powerful woman in the world in the year 2004 and currently ranks sixth. She was also named among the Time 100 most influential people in the world for the years 2007 and 2008 a name to recknon in the world.

Her son, Rahul Gandhi, was elected to Parliament for the Amethi constituency in 2004 is presently General Secretary of Congress party.Priyanka Gandhi has not stood for office, though she has worked as a Congress campaign manager.

As the destiny she is the third woman of foreign origin to hold the prestigious post after Annie Beasant and Nelli Sengupta, Sonia Gandhi also became the fifth from the Nehru family to take over the Congress reins. The other four were Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.She also is the eighth person of the foreign origin to be the Congress president.

On 28th May 2005 Smt. Sonia Gandhi was elected as President of the Indian National Congress by overwhelming support from across the country from all states.

In a short span since she plunged into active politics before the February mid-term Lok Sabha elections, Sonia in fact, had wrought a political miracle by becoming the dual chief of the 113 year old Indian National Congress and its Parliamentary party.

In the process, Sonia Gandhi also emulated her husband, mother-in-law and grandfather-in-law-Rajiv, Indira and Nehru- who all held the two posts during their career.

Sonia Gandhi, nee Maino, was born in a place called Ovassanjo, 80 km away from Turin, on Dec. 9, 1946.

Married into India's best known family of Nehru-Gandhi in 1968, the 62-year-old Sonia Gandhi became a primary member of the Congress less than a year ago before the Calcutta Congress Plenary Session in August 1997.

Sonia is in the thick of politics, but her children, Rahul and Priyanka, too are in great demand in the Congress circle for taking over the Youth Congress