Sonia Gandhi an Italian citizen: Manohar Parrikar

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar Friday said Congress president Sonia Gandhi was still an Italian national.

BJP leader Parrikar was defending his legislator Glenn Ticlo from the Aldona constituency, who has been accused of holding Portuguese nationality by the Congress party Thursday.

"In Goa, everyone born under the Portuguese regime automatically becomes a Portuguese national, just like Sonia Gandhi became an Italian national. She still continues to be one. You cannot renounce Portuguese and Italian nationalities, and that of several other countries. The country where you were born, your nationality remains," Parrikar said when asked about accusations that Ticlo had a Portuguese passport.

Goans born in the colonial regime were automatically conferred Portuguese citizenship, and after liberation in 1961, hundreds of children of native Portuguese citizens migrated to Portugal and Europe. The Congress has claimed that Ticlo had obtained a Portuguese passport by applying for the same and adopted a Portuguese nationality before he became an elected legislator.