NEW DELHI, May 16 (UPI) -- India's Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi will be the new prime minister of India, a senior party official announced Sunday.
Italian-born Gandhi had led the Congress Party and its allies to a victory in the recently held federal elections. The allied members of the Congress Party asked Sonia Gandhi to lead the new government, Congress Party leader Manmohan Singh told reporters in the Indian capital.
A meeting of Congress party and its allies unanimously elected Gandhi as their leader, he said.
The 57-year-old Gandhi, widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, will be the first foreign-born prime minister of the world's largest democracy.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee resigned Thursday after his 22-party ruling National Democratic Alliance was routed in the national elections.
Sonia Gandhi will be the fourth member of India's Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to lead the country.
India's marathon elections concluded May 10 with more than 350 million voters casting ballots to elect 543 lawmakers for India's lower, but influential, house of parliament.
India's largest and oldest political group, the Congress Party, returns to power after an eight-year hiatus.
