India's Sonia Gandhi out of intensive care after surgery

Aug 6, 2011, 10:12 GMT

New Delhi - India's ruling Congress party chief, Sonia Gandhi, has left the intensive care unit of a hospital where she was operated upon for an undisclosed ailment, a senior party leader said Saturday.

'Sonia Gandhi remained in the ICU (intensive care unit) for 24 hours and has thereafter been moved out,' Congress spokesman Janardhan Dwivedi said.

The party has not revealed Gandhi's medical condition or where she was undergoing treatment.

Indian media outlets, quoting senior Congress party sources, said she was being treated at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

A report in the Deccan Herald newspaper, citing medical sources, said the 64-year-old leader had undergone surgery for cervical cancer.

Earlier on Thursday, the Congress party made the surprise announcement that Gandhi had been 'recently diagnosed with a medical condition that requires surgery.'

On Friday, it confirmed that the surgery had been successful and said Gandhi was likely to return to India in the next two to three weeks.

Italian-born Gandhi, the widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, is considered India's most powerful politician. Although she holds no official position, political analysts consider her to be the de facto head of the government.

She is away from India during what is considered a crucial time for her embattled party, which is facing accusations of corruption and an inability to control inflation.

On Friday, India's national auditor slammed the government for wasting millions of dollars of public funds in the organization of Delhi's Commonwealth Games last year.

The Comptroller and Auditor General blamed the loss on poor governance and planning by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office, as well as the local government in Delhi.

Gandhi has named a four-member group to look after party affairs in her absence. It comprises her son and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi, Defence Minister AK Antony, political advisor Ahmed Patel and Dwivedi.