Presidential hopeful PA Sangma rakes up Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin again

New Delhi: Presidential hopeful and former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma has once again raised the issue of Congress President's Sonia Gandhi's foreign issue. Sangma launched his diatribe in Guwahati on Saturday following former president APJ Abdul Kalam's revelation that he (Kalam) could not have blocked Sonia's elevation as the Prime Minister after the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) won the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 had she wanted to.

Sangma, who broke away from the Congress along with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar on Sonia's foreign issue in 1999 to form the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), said, "It was my personal view, that is my view now also and it will be my view in the future till I die. I will never support a foreigner to be the Prime Minister or President of India. I am firm on my stand."

The former Lok Sabha Speaker was forced to quit the NCP, a key ally of the Congress, due to his insistence on contesting the Presidential election despite the UPA nominating Pranab Mukherjee as it candidate.

Sangma says he will never support a foreigner to be the Prime Minister or President of India.

Sangma's tirade comes after former president APJ Abdul Kalam in his book 'Turning Points, A Journey Through Challenges' stoked a political fire by revealing that if Sonia had so desired then he would have had no choice but to appoint her as the Prime Minister of India.

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