New Delhi, Aug. 9: A sombre Sonia Gandhi came to the Lok Sabha today, for the first time since the monsoon session began on July 26.

She sat quietly in the first half and did not return to the House to listen to the heated debate on the Commonwealth Games preparations later. Congress members tried their best to catch her attention during the zero hour but she remained aloof.

When Hoshangabad Congress MP Uday Pratap Singh raised the matter regarding the proposed demolition of a Rajiv Gandhi statue in Rewa town, many party leaders joined him leading to a din in the House. They said the BJP-led government of Madhya Pradesh was trying to insult the former Prime Minister.

Sonia, though, did not show interest as her MPs narrated how Congressmen had encircled the statue to prevent its demolition.

The Congress chief has just returned from the US after attending to her ailing mother, Paola Maino.