Kolkata: Congress on July 12 said that the party will fight the next Lok Sabha polls under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and made light of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) threat to rake up her foreign origin as an issue during the Parliamentary polls.

"We will not be guided by what Advani, Vajpayee and Naidu are saying. Let them raise that (Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin as an issue during the Lok Sabha elections). They are free to do that," senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.

He said the Shimla Sankalp sought the support of the people "to bring India back on the path of progress with Congress under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi".

"We have explained our stand clearly in the recent Shimla Conclave of the party in this regard which has not been guided by what they (BJP) say," Mukherjee told reporters.

In the wake of Congress' Shimla Conclave decision to project Sonia Gandhi as Prime Minister, BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on July 11 said that they may rake up her foreign origin as an issue during the Lok Sabha elections.

PTI