Sonia returns after 'routine checkup' abroad

Gandhi returned a day before the counting of votes in the elections to five states including crucial Uttar Pradesh. She had extensively campaigned in UP, Punjab and Uttarakhand.

"Congress President Sonia Gandhi has come back after her routine checkup and she is absolutely fine," party general secretary and media department chief Janardan Dwivedi told PTI.

Nearly six months after her treatment abroad, Gandhi had travelled out of the country on the night of February 27 for the check up. A day after Gandhi left, Dwivedi had said that the Congress president had gone abroad for check up and would return in four to five days.

Gandhi, 65, had gone out of the country for treatment of an undisclosed ailment in August last year. During her over month-long stay, she had undergone surgery, whose nature was not disclosed with the party maintaining that a citizen's right to privacy should be respected.

In her absence then, Gandhi's son, Rahul and three senior leaders were made in-charge of party affairs. Besides Rahul, the committee had comprised Defence Minister A K Antony, Janardan Dwivedi and Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel.

This time, however, no such arrangement was made, as the period of her stay out of the country was short.