When Congress president Sonia Gandhi entered the active politics in 1998, there were questions over her Italian nationality, because she was Italian citizen at that time.
At one stage, there were petitions in the court stating that she cannot contest the elections in India because of her Italian nationality.
But the Supreme Court finally ruled that she is very much Indian, as she had married an Indian to become the daughter-in-law of an Indian. Since then, nobody raised the issue of her Italian nationality.
Now, Y S Sharmila, daughter of former Andhra Pradesh chief minster late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, is facing a similar situation.
Soon after she indicated her plans to float a regional party in Telangana, there has been criticism about her regional affiliation.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi leaders have started questioning how Sharmila, who was born and brought up in Andhra and had her education in Andhra, could float a regional party in Telangana and hope to rule the state.
However, Sharmila is learnt to have already prepared an answer to her critics over her domicile status.
For the last few days, she has been discussing with her close confidants over the formation of new political party and the issue of people of Telangana accepting her as their leader because of her Andhra regionality, has also come up for discussion.
She reportedly made it clear to the leaders that if there is any such talk, she would play the daughter-in-law card.
“If Andhra is my birthplace, Telangana is my in-laws’ place. I have come to Telangana as the daughter-in-law; and so, I will naturally become a Telanganite,” she asserted.
Sharmila is going to play this “Mettinillu” (in-laws’ house) card and take it strongly into the people.
“Hyderabad is my house and I will stay here forever. I have no stakes whatsoever in Andhra. So, I have every right to fight the elections here,” she reportedly said.