NEW DELHI, 22 May 2004 — Days after turning down India’s premiership, a tearful Sonia Gandhi yesterday took time out from hectic political horsetrading to sprinkle rose petals on a memorial to her husband Rajiv, killed by a suicide bomber 13 years ago.

Dressed in a crisp gray cotton sari and a white blouse, Italian-born Sonia, 57, was accompanied by son Rahul during the simple ceremony at the Vir Bhumi memorial in New Delhi.

After placing handfuls of red rose petals at the memorial, she stood for a minute with folded hands before walking barefoot around the square, gray granite platform, which was decorated by white flowers.

Rahul, 33, a financial consultant who was elected to the Parliament in the recently held national polls, was dressed in white kurta and pajama.

He too paid homage to his late father, who was killed on May 21, 1991 by a woman suicide bomber said by India to be a supporter of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger separatists.

Daughter Priyanka was not at the ceremony, with function organizer Romi Chopra saying the mother of two small children could have been detained by family problems.

“The tribute today has a special meaning for us as the Congress party, and I am sure for Mrs. Gandhi too, who has led the party to such a great victory,” in India’s recent parliamentary polls, said a senior Congress leader who did not want to be named.

“There are more people here today than in preceding years and this reflects the new-found enthusiasm in the party,” he said as police kept a tight check on hundreds of activists who swarmed around the memorial as soon as the Gandhis and other dignitaries left.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people in a southern Indian town waited for Sonia to join them yesterday to mark her husband Rajiv’s death anniversary, but she was busy in tricky talks over a Cabinet.

Sonia was due to visit Sriperumbudur but canceled her visit at the last minute.

“They are busy forming the government,” said V.K. Shanmugam, a 64-year-old Congress member, wearing a tri-color party cap in the town of Sriperumbudur. “We were expecting them here but because of the formation of the government in Delhi they could not make it.”

Giant posters of the Gandhi family — Sonia and her children, Rahul and Priyanka — dotted Sriperumbudur as party flags fluttered and loudspeakers played traditional music near a granite memorial to the slain leader. “I have come here to pray for the peace of Rajiv Gandhi’s soul,” said a Hindu priest, Nagaraja Gurukkal, as vendors sold memorabilia like pens, car stickers, photos, letter pads and badges with pictures of Rajiv and Sonia.

Dozens of reporters and a row of broadcast vans of television stations also waited all day for the Gandhis to arrive.

Either Sonia, who married into India’s first family more than 35 years ago, or her children have made a pilgrimage to Sriperumbudur almost every year since Rajiv was killed.

When Sonia Gandhi entered politics about six years ago, her first election rally was in the dusty little town in Tamil Nadu.

“I stand here today on this soil made sacred by the blood of my husband who martyred his life for the unity of the country,” she said. “In coming here, I pay homage to Rajiv Gandhi and I grieve for him.”

Sonia Gandhi stunned the world when she gave up her claim to the prime ministership following bitter attacks over her Italian birth. Adoring followers likened her to other renunciates like Buddha and Hindu deity Rama.