Click to play videoNew Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Purno Sangma who took on Congress President Sonia Gandhi over the foreign origins issue is now saying sorry to her.
NCP was formed after the Northeast leader along with party chief Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar broke away from the Congress over the foreign origin issue.
Now the ghost of foreign origin has finally been buried.
At a meeting with Sonia last week NCP leader Sangma accompanied by daughter Agatha Sangma, who is a minister in the United Progress Alliance Government, apologised to the Congress President for raking the foreign origin issue against her.
"The issue that I had raised no longer exists. That is why we have become friends. I apologised as it was my mistake," said Sangma.
It was at a Congress Working Committee meet 10 years back, with Sonia tipped to take charge of the Congress, that Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar had attacked her saying a foreigner could not be accepted as their leader.
A hurt Sonia walked away and NCP with Pawar as its chief was born. But in 2004 the NCP shared stage with Sonia as its ally.
Interestingly, Sangma's apology came at a time when senior Congress leaders from Maharashtra like Prithviraj Chavan and Vilasrao Deshmukh are suggesting that Congress should go it alone in the state during polls.
In a political turnaround in 2004 Sonia worked overtime to get allies and NCP was crucial then.
Now the Congress is clearly the big brother with allies falling in line and with success bitterness and issues are often forgotten.
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