Full credit to PM for Cong-SP rapprochement: Amar

New Delhi, Jul 12 (UNI) Giving ''full credit'' to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the Congress-SP reconciliation, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh today said the process was not sudden but had been initiated five months back.

''The full credit goes to the Prime Minister for bringing the two parties together,'' he told a private news channel in an interview and added that neither Rahul Gandhi nor Sonia Gandhi had any role in it.

''It was not now or all of a sudden, but five months back itself, the Prime Minister took the initiative (to win SP support on the Nuclear deal),'' said Mr Singh.

''After the Prime Minister had set at rest all our doubts over the N-Deal and Iran pipeline project, we ourselves went to Sonia Gandhi and conveyed to her our support to the UPA government,'' he stated.

Asked about the relations his party would in future have with the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, Mr Singh said, ''From our side (SP), there will be no problem.'' ''It all depends on them (Congress). More over, it is not understanding at the leadership level but at the ground level which is important,'' he remarked and expressed the hope that a 'way out' could be found.

He said at a time when communal forces are spreading like wild fire, the Congress will have to turn to the SP for help ''since we are already engaged in fighting the menace.'' He stated that he had only spoken to Rahul Gandhi once after recieving his letter of condolence after his father's death. ''That is all. After that we have not met till now,'' he said.

The remarks assume significance as Rahul Gandhi will reportedly be the chief Congress negotiator with the SP for a possible electoral tie-up in Uttar Pradesh.

Accusing BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani of being ''a liar, opportunist, and a person with selective memory'' Mr Singh said Advani's ideology stands for Godhra pogrom, Moditva, violent street politics over Amarnath land row.

Declaring UP Chief Minister Mayawati and Mr Advani as the No 1 enemies of his party, he alleged that the BSP and BJP were now trying to cement an alliance.

He, however, reserved all praise for BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

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