Guwahati: Former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma today (May 14, 2004) claimed that the people had not taken "seriously" the question of the foreign origin of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, but asserted her becoming Prime Minister would spark off a nationwide debate on the issue.

"Unfortunately, the people of the country did not seriously take the issue of the foreign origin of Sonia and probably never thought she would become the Prime Minister. But now when she assumes the top post a real nationwide debate will be on," Sangma, who won the Tura Lok Sabha seat from Meghalaya, told reporters at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi airport.

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Vowing to devote his full time to mobilise public opinion against Sonia's foreign origin issue, Sangma said people should be aware that every nation had its own security concerns and it was the Prime Minister who "knows all secrets of national security".

Sangma, who was the first to raise the Sonia foreign origin issue before quitting the Congress in 1999, rejected that the people had given their mandate to the Congress.

To a query about his reported statement that he would quit his MP seat if Sonia became the Prime Minister, the Nationalist Trinamool Congress leader, reminding that he was currently only an MP-elect, said he would discuss the issue with State-level and central party leaders.