Sonia Gandhi's 'Belonging: A Journey Of Love' Hits Bookstores Across India, Revisits Her Decision To Turn Down PM's Post In 2004 | Video

New Delhi: Sonia Gandhi's memoirs "Belonging: A Journey of Love" has hit the bookstores across the country on Tuesday. According to publisher Harper Collins India, the memoir is being released across several bookstores nationwide, including Higginbotham in Chennai, Bahrisons and Midland in Delhi, The White Crow and Title Waves in Mumbai, Mathrubhumi Books in Kerala, Blossoms and The Bookworm in Karnataka, and Crossword outlets across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi-NCR, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Gujarat and Kerala.

On Tuesday, the CPP Chairperson shared excerpts of her newly released memoirs. Posting an article written in the Indian Express, Sonia Gandhi referred to her refusal to take on the mantle of Prime Minister when the UPA government was voted to power in 2004.

In her post on X she shared, "My mind suddenly cleared itself of the last shreds of doubt. “Sonia, be true to yourself,” I could hear myself say. “You’ve always known it. Just leave it!” From Belonging - on the decision not to become Prime Minister."

In the excerpts from the book published by the Indian Express, Sonia says,"“Sonia, be true to yourself,” I could hear myself say. “You’ve always known it. Just leave it!" I woke up in a few hours, went straight to my son’s room, and knocked on the door. “I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to stick to my stand,” I told him. He stepped up to me and with his arms around me said, “It’s the right decision.” "I enter the hall to thunderous applause. The members of Par­liament stand up in their places, thumping their palms on the wooden ledges in front of them. I find my place at the centre of the long table for the leaders of the party and remain standing till someone gestures for them to stop, and we all take our seats."

The memoir chronicles Sonia Gandhi's journey from her childhood in post-war Italy and her romance with Rajiv Gandhi to her life in India and the personal losses that shaped her relationship with her adopted country.

It revisits her childhood in Italy, her relationship with Rajiv Gandhi during their time at Cambridge, and the assassinations of her mother-in-law, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and her husband, Rajiv Gandhi.

Publisher Alfred A Knopf had announced on August 18 that Belonging: A Journey of Love would be published on November 10.

Born in Italy, Sonia Gandhi was a 19-year-old student in Cambridge, England, when she met Rajiv Gandhi in 1965. The couple got married on February 25, 1968. 

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