Sushma Swaraj too rakes up Sonia's foreign origin

A person, who has not sacrificed for the nation can't be a Prime Ministerial candidate, Sushma said.

Joining senior BJP leaders in raking up Congress president Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin issue, Union Health Minister Sushma Swaraj said here "a person, who has not sacrificed anything for the nation and struggled for it cannot be accepted as a Prime Ministerial candidate."

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"If she (Gandhi) comes to us as daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi, we will shower affection on her, if she comes as widow of Rajiv Gandhi and president of Congress, we will respect her, but if she eyes the seat of PM, it is an emphatic `no'," Swaraj said, addressing an election rally in Meghaninagar area of the city last night while canvassing for DPM L K Advani.

Criticising Gandhi for not applying for Indian citizenship even 16 years after her marriage, Swaraj asked people to consider "if a person, who has become an Indian by compulsion and not willingly, can be acceptable as PM?"

"For her, India is a country and not motherland", Swaraj said, casting aspersions about the Congress president's "sense of nationalism."

Swaraj said it is highly doubtful whether Congress would even be able to cross the 100 seat mark this time.