Sonia Gandhi campaigning start date

Sonia Gandhi, the widow of Rajiv, the assassinated Indian prime minister, is to launch the campaign marking her active entry into politics on Sunday -- several days earlier than expected.

Mrs Gandhi will speak at a Congress Party election campaign rally at the site in Tamil Nadu state where her husband was killed by a bomb in 1991.

The BBC Delhi correspondent says Mrs Gandhi's participation in the campaign has given a largely unwanted election an air of excitement.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service