Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday underwent surgery in a US hospital for an undisclosed ailment which will keep her out of India for a month during which the party affairs will looked after by Rahul Gandhi-led four-member group.
The Congress party's announcement in New Delhi that its 64-year-old leader has been diagnosed for surgery and that Rahul, Defence Minister A. K. Antony, her political aide Ahmed Patel and General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi will run the affairs of the party caught the country by total surprise because there was no inkling that she had travelled abroad.
Gandhi's ailment remained a matter of speculation in the absence of authentic word with the Congress party maintaining total secrecy about the country where she had travelled for the surgery along with her son.
However, it was learnt tonight that the Congress leader had undergone a successful surgery in a US hospital.
A statement on her health is expected to be issued tomorrow either by the family or by the doctors.
The Tehelka news magazine said on microblogging site Twitter that Gandhi was admitted on Thursday to New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the world's largest private cancer center according to the hospital website.