Last updated on: June 16, 2011 09:25 IST

Dodging immense political heat that Congress is facing from the opposition and the civil society members, United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi is reportedly on a visit to her hometown Italy.

Even her son and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is also somewhere in Europe, while daughter Priyanka is staying back in Delhi, the Deccan Herald reported.

Sonia is in Orbassano near Turin in Italy where she is visiting her ailing mother Paola Maino who lives with her other two daughters, the report added.



The Congress chief left Delhi after attending the June 5 meeting of the party's core committee which took stock of the aftermath of the police crackdown on yoga guru Baba Ramdev and his followers.



While Congress leaders are tightlipped about the whereabouts of Sonia and Rahul, sources told Deccan Herald that Maino, in her 80s, is having a series of health complications.