By IANS,
New Delhi : Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Lok Sabha speaker Purno A. Sangma Friday said he had apologised to Congress president Sonia Gandhi for raising the issue of her foreign origin a decade ago.
“The fault is mine, so I apologised,” Sangma told reporters.
“I told her I am sorry for what had happened 10 years ago. I wanted to apologise,” said Sangma. He had gone to meet the Congress president Monday to invite her for his son’s wedding reception.
Sangma had, along with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar, parted ways with the Congress on Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin issue in 1999 and formed the NCP.
Sangma also said that the foreign origin was “no longer an issue”.
“My daughter is a UPA minister and we are giving full support to the government,” he said.
Asked whether there was a possibility of the NCP merging with the Congress following Sangma’s apology, NCP spokesman and general secretary D.P. Tripathi said: “Who has spoken about merger? There is no talk of merger.”
However, he confirmed that Sangma had gone to meet Sonia Gandhi at her residence to invite her.
According to a NCP leader, there is “a section in the party that is now asking what we have achieved after 10 years of separation (from the Congress)?”
The leader continued: “In the Maharashtra assembly, we were number one, now our party is number four. So people are asking what has the NCP actually achieved?,” the party leader added declining to be named.