A day before Rahul Gandhi will formally take over the reins of the Congress, his mother and outgoing party chief Sonia Gandhi said she had “retired”.

Sonia, who led the 132-year-old party to two consecutive Lok Sabha victories, led the party for a record 19 consecutive years beginning 1998.

“My role is to retire,” the Congress leader said when asked about what role she would perform after her son takes over the party.

Change of guard Rahul Gandhi was elected unopposed as Congress President on December 11. The process involved filing of 89 nomination papers by several State Congress units and senior leaders proposing him as the next President.

On Saturday, December 16, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) will hold function where its central election authority chairman Mullappally Ramachandran will hand over a certificate of election to Rahul Gandhi. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh is expected to speak and so is Sonia Gandhi, whose address will be a farewell speech to the party she has headed for almost two decades. Rahul will outline his vision for the Congress in his concluding remarks.

‘She stays’ The Congress, however, insisted that although Sonia will stop being the party’s President, it does not follow that she is retiring from public life altogether.

Party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, “Sonia Gandhi has retired as president of Indian National Congress and not from politics. Her blessings, wisdom and innate commitment to Congress ideology shall always be our guiding light.”

‘Difficult transition’ Some others were more eloquent. Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Chowdhury, who had cried publicly when Sonia declined to be Prime Minister after Congress-led UPA assumed power in 2004, said she would like to believe that Sonia would “always be there to steer the grand old party in the right direction”.

“(She) may say (that she has retired). It is part of her nature, her personality where she has never aspired for a post or clung to power...she talks about what she believes is right and stands by her conviction. There is no doubt about her commitment,” Chowdhury said outside Parliament.

The MP said it is not easy for Congress workers to accept that Sonia would no longer be politically active. “For those of us who are around, it is not [a fact] that we can accept easily... The ideas she has stood by will always be relevant and our commitment as workers to strengthen the party will remain,” she said.

DMK leader TKS Elangovan said it was Sonia’s “personal decision” to quit political life. “We cannot influence [her decision. Because if she is retiring on health grounds, what can we do?” he asked.

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