Narendra Modi greets Sonia Gandhi on her 71st birthday, wishes her 'long life and good health'

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday wished Congress President Sonia Gandhi on her 71st birthday.

The Congress party also wished Gandhi. “Compassionate, hardworking, selfless. Calm and composed, yet dignified and strong. A force for empowerment against all odds.”

Sonia Gandhi was born Sonia Maino to Stefano and Paola Maino on 9 December, 1946 in a small village near Vicenza, Italy. She married Rajiv Gandhi in 1968. She took up Indian citizenship and began living with her mother-in-law, the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, at the latter’s New Delhi residence. She stepped in as the party President in 1998, seven years after her husband’s assassination. She has remained in office since.