Sonia Gandhi recalls how ‘Indira amma’ connected Telugu people to her, Hyderabad-Vijayawada journey in 2004

Sonia Gandhi during her road show in Hyderabad on March 11, 2004

Sonia Gandhi’s attachment to the Telugu people of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana was rooted in her being ‘daughter-in-law of Indira amma’, rather than wife of Rajiv Gandhi or just herself ‘Sonia Gandhi’.

In her memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love, Ms. Sonia Gandhi recalls her warm interaction with Lambadi women in the combined Andhra Pradesh, who promised to vote for Congress as she was the daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

She writes that her Jan Sampark programme had entered Andhra Pradesh after she had campaigned in Karnataka in 2004. Her first stop was Hyderabad, where she visited Gandhi Bhawan, the Congress party headquarters. She describes the building as a “grand old building”, whose foundation stone Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel laid in 1950 and which the then President, Rajendra Prasad, inaugurated.

Larger-than-life cutout Congress leader Sonia Gandhi at Gandhi Bhavan, headquarters of the then APCC, in Hyderabad on January 24, 2004.

In the Jan Sampark programme in 2004, she travelled from Hyderabad to Vijayawada, where she was greeted with slogans in support of the Congress and “Indira Amma”, the affectionate name by which people remembered her mother-in-law, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

One particular interaction with Banjara women left a lasting impression on her. Ms. Sonia Gandhi writes that she noticed a group of women standing by the roadside as her motorcade moved slowly through the area. Recognising them as Banjaras, also known as Lambadas, she stopped to meet them.

She describes their traditional attire in detail — brightly coloured red and blue lehengas, embroidered blouses and mirror-worked odhnis. The encounter felt especially personal because the clothes reminded her of what she wore at her mehendi ceremony the night before her wedding.

The women insisted that she accept an odhni and placed it over her head. Ms. Sonia Gandhi explained the personal significance of their traditional dress, with a group member translating for her. Delighted by the connection, the women broke into a spontaneous dance and drew her into their group.

The women told her that, as the daughter-in-law of “Indira Amma”, they would vote for her and the Congress Party. Other men and women nearby joined them in raising slogans in support of the Congress.

Ms. Sonia Gandhi says the encounters during the journey, including the interaction in Vijayawada, helped her understand the public mood. She writes that as she continued stopping to speak to people, young and old, she began to feel that there was no confusion or hesitation among the people at large. The changing response encouraged her to continue her political fight.

The Andhra Pradesh references in the memoir also carry an earlier political context. Recalling the presidential election of 1969, Ms. Sonia Gandhi writes about the confrontation between Indira Gandhi and the Congress Syndicate, the party’s old guard. Following the death of President Zakir Husain in May that year [1969], the Syndicate nominated Neelam Sanjiva Reddy as its candidate. Ms. Sonia Gandhi describes Reddy as a member of the Syndicate and a “bitter opponent” of Indira Gandhi.

According to her account, Indira Gandhi — who was pursuing a different economic and political course — opposed the move and backed Vice-President V.V. Giri as an independent candidate. She called for a conscience vote among legislators. Giri eventually won the election, in what Ms. Sonia Gandhi describes as an important victory for Indira Gandhi in her struggle to assert control over the Congress.

Ms. Sonia Gandhi refers to Sanjiva Reddy again while recounting the political crisis following the Allahabad High Court judgment against Indira Gandhi in June 1975. She writes that the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister (Jalagam Vengala Rao) had intercepted a message from Jayaprakash Narayan to Sanjiva Reddy, seeking his support in efforts to oust Indira Gandhi.

According to the memoir, the Chief Minister had told Sanjeeva Reddy that the judgment would go against Indira Gandhi and that she would be disqualified for six years. And it was the right time to attack her.