NEW DELHI, March 23: Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the governing coalition, stepped down on Thursday as a member of Parliament amid inter-party feuding over whether she violated a once-obscure election law by holding another government job.
Despite her resignation, Ms Gandhi still wields considerable political clout. Much of her influence is informal, and she is seen by many Indians as the real power behind Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. She said she would run again for the same parliamentary seat.
The move by the Italian-born Gandhi, the widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, appeared aimed at defusing opposition claims that she is not qualified to sit in Parliament since she also chairs a number of organisations.
A 1959 law in India which many say is outdated does not allow national lawmakers to hold other paying jobs in the government, unless Parliament makes specific exemptions.
Gandhi was first elected to Parliament in 1999. After her party won elections in 2004, she refused to take the post of prime minister, but did take over the ruling coalition and until Thursday, headed the National Advisory Council, set up to oversee the government’s development program.
But the government-appointed council, opposition leaders pointed out, is an “office of profit” under the 1959 law and cannot be headed by a lawmaker.
“I have said this earlier too, that I have not joined politics for selfish reasons but to serve the Indian society and defend secular values,” Gandhi told reporters outside her New Delhi home. “That is why, in keeping with the ideals of public life and politics and my own self respect, I am resigning from (Parliament).”
Ms Gandhi insisted this is not an exit from politics: “I will definitely fight (elections), and from Rae Bareli,” the rural constituency that her family has long represented, she said.
The attacks on Gandhi came after a Congress party worker filed a complaint with the federal election commission, saying Jaya Bachchan, an MP, wife of India’s most famous movie star and a representative of a party long at odds with the Gandhi family, had broken the 1959 law.—AP