Mumbai, Oct 21: Reacting to Sonia Gandhi's recent statement that her "Indianness" and "commitment" cannot be questioned, senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan has said the Congress president should explain why she waited for 18 years after her marriage to get the Indian citizenship.
Gandhi became an Indian citizen only after her husband late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi entered politics, he told reporters here yesterday during an informal interaction.

Gandhi had sharply berated detractors raising her foreign origin issue saying, she has followed all Indian traditions after her marriage and that her "Indianness and commitment" were unquestionable.

The BJP leader said that all those who were opposed to possibility of Gandhi becoming the country's Prime Minister would come out in the open in the interest of national pride.

Meanwhile, Mahajan said there was a possibility of early assembly polls in Maharashtra.

He said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani would be BJP's star campaigners in the forthcoming elections to five states.

Bureau Report