Sonia Gandhi likely to return from US by month-end

“Congress president is expected to return by the end of this month,” a party leader told IANS.

He said the health of Gandhi, who underwent a surgery, has improved significantly. The party has not disclosed the nature of her surgery. 

Party sources said that Gandhi was being kept “in the loop” about the decisions taken by the government to handle the situation created by the fast by activist Anna Hazare for a strong Lokpal bill.

The government's initial handling of the fast had come in for criticism by some of the party's MPs who said Hazare should not have been arrested and put in Tihar jail.

Some leaders also expressed the view privately that the situation created by Hazare's fast would have been handled better if Gandhi was present in the country.

Gandhi had put in place a group of four leaders - A.K. Antony, Ahmed Patel, Janardan Dwivedi and her son Rahul Gandhi - to look after party affairs in her absence.