Sonia Gandhi leaves for check-up to an undisclosed location

NEW DELHI: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday left the country for a routine medical check-up a year after undergoing surgery for an undisclosed ailment. “The Congress President has gone abroad for check-up,” AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters.

He said Gandhi would return in a week. Gandhi, who had undergone a surgery August last year for an undisclosed ailment, had been abroad in February this year for medical check-up. He didn’t disclose which country she has left for.

Unlike last time, this time around she hasn't constituted a committee to look after the affairs of the party while she is away.

She had then constituted a group comprising defence Minister A.K. Antony, her son and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel and Dwivedi to look after party affairs in her absence.

Gandhi's departure comes at a critical time as the Congress-led government is embroiled in a crisis over the CAG report on coal and the BJP’s hardline position on the PM.

Before she left, she reached out to Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj to break the current logjam in Parliament. Gandhi spoke to the senior BJP leader on Friday coinciding with her hectic consultations with the party top brass including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, sources said. The BJP, however, said there is no change in their stand of seeking the Prime Minister's resignation on the issue.