‘Calling Sonia foreigner was big mistake’

In the crucial balancing act of UP’s coalition politics, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is now pulling out all stops ...

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In the crucial balancing act of UP’s coalition politics, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is now pulling out all stops in his praise for Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Barely hours before meeting her in the Capital today, Yadav once again regretted his 1999 remarks about Gandhi’s foreign origin and profusely thanked her for helping him form of a secular government in the state.

‘‘I had made big mistakes in 1999,’’ Yadav told mediapersons. ‘‘However, you too had also reported things in different ways. Half-truths are dangerous and I will not do anything half-hearted any more.’’

Yadav’s statement comes on the heels of his earlier statement in the Assembly when he declared that the debate on Gandhi’s foreign origin was ‘‘now a thing of the past. Sonia Gandhi has shown her magnanimity by lending support despite being dubbed a foreigner by me,’’ he had said in Lucknow.

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He ended his short speech by heaping laurels on Gandhi again: ‘‘Whatever she has done till now is praiseworthy. She made immense sacrifices at a time when UP was burning.’’ He added that he would be resigning as chairperson from the parliamentary committee on petroleum but not from Parliament.

Earlier, Samajwadi Party spokesperson Amar Singh had to face a volley of questions on the clandestine SP-BJP deal. On replacing Speaker Kesri Nath Tripathi with a candidate from the SP-led coalition government, he said: ‘‘We will have to sit together and work out a strategy. There is no talk as yet.’’

Asked if rebel BJP legislators were meeting him, Singh said: ‘‘There has been talk of a split in BJP for over a year but nothing has happened. Even I was accused of being behind it. While they congratulated us, they voted against us during the confidence vote in the Assembly.’’