But her future in Indian politics is now in some doubt, following the Congress party's performance in these elections - the worst since independence.

The Gandhi name is still revered in India and the Congress Party was looking to Mrs Gandhi to translate that feeling into votes.

She managed to win a place in parliament for the first time,after she won from two seats - one in the north, the other in south India. She will now lead the opposition in parliament.

Although Mrs Gandhi's longer-term role is still being debated, there is speculation that her children may follow her into politics - particularly her daughter, Priyanka.

Originally from Turin, Italy, she met her future husband when she was a language student in Cambridge, England. The couple married in 1968 and she moved into the house of her mother-in-law and then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

A reluctant Sonia Gandhi was propelled into the forefront of the Indian political scene when her husband Rajiv was picked as the natural successor to Gandhi-Nehru crown, following the death of his brother in a plane crash in 1980.

She is a familiar figure in Amethi, her husband's rural parliamentary constituency in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh which she now represents. But after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991, Sonia Gandhi distanced herself and her children from active politics.

During the last elections in 1998, she was persuaded to campaign and eventually was made party president, but her Italian origins are seized on by her political opponents who consider her unfit to be prime minister.