Sonia Gandhi taken ill in Shimla; flown to Delhi after stopover in Chandigarh

Pratibha Chauhan/Nitin Jain  

Tribune News Service 

Shimla/Chandigarh, March 23

An unwell Sonia Gandhi left for Chandigarh from Shimla on Thursday night at 11 pm. 

The senior Congress leader along with her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra reportedly refused to go to local Indira Gandhi Medical College for treatment and insisted on reaching Chandigarh to be able to fly back to Delhi.

Both were putting up at Hotel Wildflower Hall in Charabra.

Dr Ramesh Chand, Medical Superintendent, IGMC, who accompanied Sonia till Chandigarh, said she was stable and travelled without stopping en route. An ambulance accompanied her but she travelled in her own vehicle. She had arrived here on Wednesday and was was to leave for Delhi on Friday.  

She reached Chandigarh at 2.40 am and stayed at a private hotel here. 

She on Friday flew to Delhi by a special aircraft from Chandigarh airport at 8.35 am. Meanwhile, PGI was kept on alert for emergency.

However, no medical intervention was required during her almost six-hour stay in Chandigarh. Sonia and Priyanka reached the airport at 8.15 am for boarding the chartered flight.

Incidentally, Sonia had taken ill even on her last visit to Shimla and had to be airlifted by a chartered flight. She is a frequent visitor to  Charabra where her daughter Priyanka is constructing a house since 2007.