Indian Congress Party Leader Sonia Gandhi ill, Hospitalized

Gandhi is the Italian-born widow of slain former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. After his death, she entered politics reluctantly, but led the party to successive election triumphs in 2004 and 2009. But her party lost power to current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party in 2014.

Sonia Gandhi, the leader of India’s opposition Congress party, was hospitalized Tuesday for a viral fever, a party official said.

Gandhi will spend two days in a New Delhi hospital, party chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said in a statement.

Gandhi, 69, has faced past health problems, but her party has long kept a veil over her personal life. She flew to the United States for surgery in 2011, but the party never provided more than cursory information about her condition.

In March, she cut short a political rally in northern India due to a high fever and was hospitalized in New Delhi for several days.