Updated

A party official says Sonia Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party, has cut short a political rally in northern India due to a high fever.

Party spokesman Randeep Surjewala said Gandhi has been suffering from fever for the last few days but decided to campaign Tuesday for state legislature elections to be held in Uttar Pradesh state early next year.

During the day, she led a huge procession of her party supporters through the streets of Varanasi, a district represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India's Parliament.

Gandhi is the Italian-born widow of slain former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. After his death, she entered politics reluctantly but led the Congress party to successive election triumphs in 2004 and 2009. But her party lost power in 2014.