Asserting that Shiv Sena would aggressively take up Savarkar controversy in the run up to October 13 Maharashtra assembly polls, the party chief Bal Thackeray today raked up the foreign origin of AICC President and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

"Sonia took Rajiv to Sicily island for their safety when India was fighting the war with Pakistan in 1971," Thackeray said in an interview to party mouthpiece Saamna in Mumbai.

Quoting Pupul Jaikar's book on Indira Gandhi, the Sena chief said, "It details how Sonia, by her behaviour, troubled the former prime minister."

Thackeray also questioned the friendship between Sonia Gandhi's father and Mussolini during the course of the interview and said, "We will not take lessons of patriotism from her."

Referring to Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar's controversial remarks against Veer Savarkar, he said it will be an election issue. "If he (Aiyar) had not made the statement at this time, then it would not have become an issue," he added.

But Thackeray clarified that Sena would have agitated over the issue even if elections were not round the corner.

Claiming that Aiyar was a former communist who was being backed by the Left Front, he said, "Those criticising Aiyar are being targeted."

The Sena chief claimed that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) system was a 'fraud', leaving a scope for bogus voting.

"If our polling agents are not vigilant, then it will be difficult," he cautioned the partymen.