Samajwadi Party termed the apology of senior NCP leader P A Sangma to Congress President Sonia Gandhi a "defeat of Sangma" and "victory to Sonia".

"The statement of Sangma about apologising to Sonia Gandhi is a big statement. After his surrender to Gandhi, the issue of foreign origin on which NCP was formed does not exist any longer," SP general secretary Amar Singh said. "The apology is a defeat of Sangma and victory to Sonia," Singh claimed.

He, however, refused to draw any parallel between NCP and SP which had also opposed Gandhi's Prime Ministership because of her foreign origin.

"Samajwadi Party opposed Sonia Gandhi as we were the opponents yet we did not oppose it so virulently. Though opponents, we saved the Congress-led government and also saved the nuclear deal. On the contrary, there were those who ate the salt of Congress and then parted ways from it on the issue of foreign origin of Gandhi," Singh said.

Singh admitted that the SP's decision to oppose Gandhi's candidature for Prime Ministership was a "mistake".

"The mistake was committed. We accepted it. We do not want to repeat it. But there is difference among us, P A Sangma and others. We are not going to make requests to her after supporting the ministry," he said referring to Sangma's daughter Agatha Sangma, a minister in the UPA government.

"No daughter or daughter-in-law of our family became a minister and hence there is no comparison," Singh said adding that when SP had supported Congress, the latter was politically in a bad shape in a number of states.