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India's Sonia Gandhi Hospitalized


FILE - Chief of India's ruling Congress party Sonia Gandhi (R) speaks during a news conference in New Delhi.
FILE - Chief of India's ruling Congress party Sonia Gandhi (R) speaks during a news conference in New Delhi.

The head of India's opposition Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, has been hospitalized for a respiratory infection.

The 68-year-old matriarch of India's famed political dynasty was admitted to a hospital in the capital, New Delhi, late Thursday.

Gandhi is the Italian-born widow of slain former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. After his death, she entered politics reluctantly, but led the Congress party to successive election triumphs in 2004 and 2009.

Her party lost the 2014 national elections to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Last year, Gandhi was rushed to the hospital after she fell ill during a debate in parliament.

Her health and private life are closely guarded secrets but have been the subject of much speculation in India since 2011, when she went to the United States for surgery.

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