half and delves into the complex and convoluted world of Indian politics to provide the background to understanding Sonia Gandhi the politician, the most powerful person in India. We re-live the processes of becoming Sonia Gandhi the political entity, of transforming her own persona and then the aura around and within her party to the role she personifies - the grand matriarch of the Indian National Congress.

We learn how she responds to the challenges that her unique position provides, her mistakes as well as determination to succeed. Sonia Gandhi surmounts great difficulties, within her own party and within the polity, to continue on as the leader of a group that is battling for political survival. Beyond her own problems is the portrayal of greater and much larger occurrences; the Gujarat riots, the death of senior colleagues, the implications of successive electoral defeats and the creation of a national mood against her and her party.

This book also describes the state of the nation and the social and economic milieu of India within which its politics functioned throughout the 1990's and the major events and forces that shaped this period: 'The New Economic Policy' (NEP), the Barbri crises and its social and political consequences, the pulls and pressures of inner-party politics, issues such as corruption, rise of regional politics and electoral fortunes Individuals and personalities who participated in the events of the time, both within the Congress and outside it, come to life in this lucid political narrative.