The Italian-born widow of the former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, will not be a candidate in the Indian elections "for now", her private secretary said. A Congress Party source said the decision came after a leadership meeting, attended by the incumbent Congress president, Mr Sitaram Kesri, and Ms Sonia Gandhi (51).
"Sonia Gandhi has decided not to contest the polls for now. Instead she will concentrate on the campaign for the Congress Party," Mr Vincent George, private secretary, said in a statement.
Earlier a close aide of Ms Gandhi said she would contest the February-March polls from her husband's constituency of Amethi in northern India.
But the statement said: "While acknowledging her desire to deepen her relation with the constituency of her late husband she has decided that for now she will not contest the elections."
The Congress Party source said the decision was taken "mainly to avert a power struggle" in the once-dominant party. "There is bound to be a tussle for the top party post now. At the time of elections this is uncalled for. Sonia's decision not to contest should be taken in this context," the source said.
Ms Gandhi has no political experience but the party is hoping to exploit the aura of the Gandhi name in an attempt to return to power after years of declining support. Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomber in 1991.
Analysts expect the elections, the second in India within two years, to end in a hung parliament.
A right-wing Hindu nationalist group is expected to emerge as India's largest political party ahead of the Congress. Neither is expected to win an overall majority and both are canvassing support from regional parties.
Meanwhile, Muslim separatists massacred 23 Hindus and mutilated their bodies in a village in Indian-administered Kashmir. The killings took place shortly before midnight on Sunday at Vandhama, on the eve of India's Republic Day, government officials and police said yesterday. The dead included four children aged between one and six, 10 women and nine men. The only surviving Hindu in the village was an eight-year-old boy, Vinod Kumar.
He told police five gunmen in battle gear stormed into his house, asked for tea and then killed all his relatives before torching the house. They kept their promise that he would not be harmed.
Kashmir officials said 50 militants stormed the village, 20 km north of Srinagar, dragged out men and women from their homes, shot them and mutilated the bodies.
The killings occurred despite heightened security in Kashmir before India's Republic Day. Official celebrations went off peacefully amid a protest strike in the Kashmir Valley.
Kashmir, which has a Muslim majority, is divided between India and Pakistan. They both claim the territory and have fought two wars over it since 1947.