Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, Wednesday cancelled election rally in Chennai, state capital of Tamil Nadu, due to alleged threat from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) supporters, said a Home Ministry official.

Indian intelligence agencies intercepted threat to her life by LTTE supporters in the southern metropolis, said the official on condition of anonymity.

"There is a threat to Gandhi's security in Chennai. Pro-LTTE supporters in Tamil Nadu may try to disrupt her rallies and even stage attacks on her life, following which the Home Ministry has advised her to call off the rallies in Chennai and Pondicherry," the official said.

Sonia Gandhi's husband, former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by LTTE in Tamil Nadu in 1991.

"The Home Ministry doesn't want to take any risk with Gandhi's life. This is despite Gandhi getting the highest security in India guarded by the elite Special Protection Group commandos," said the official.

Though the Congress party is officially denying any serious threat to Gandhi's life, its spokesperson Gulam Nabi Azad said that the rally in Chennai was cancelled as the 84-year-old Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Karunanidhi is feeling unwell.

"The rallies have been postponed," he told the media.

Tamil Nadu will go to polls on May 13 in the fifth and last phase of general elections.

The civil war in Sri Lanka has become a priority topic in the election campaigns by the political parties of the southern state, where 90 percent of the population are ethnic Tamils kin to the Sri Lankan Tamils and the Tamil tongue is the official language.

(Xinhua News Agency May 6, 2009)