Amar Singh praises Sonia, Mayawati

Trying to warm up to Mayawati, rebel Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh said on Saturday that the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo has proved herself against all odds and he can understand her "pain" when she was "humiliated" by Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Stating that he was not without alternatives, Singh, who has been sparring with his SP detractors ever since he quit key party posts, also heaped praise on Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Both Mayawati and Gandhi have "proved themselves against all odds", Singh, who is under pressure to quit his Rajya Sabha seat, said. "Both of them are political personalities in their own right. One lady has proved herself in the state of Uttar Pradesh against all odds and the other has proved herself in the country against all odds," Singh told CNN-IBN in an interview.

On Mayawati, he said, "Now I can sense her pain of the guest house episode," while recalling the incident in which Samajwadi Party workers had surrounded the Uttar Pradesh state guest house in Lucknow in 1995 and roughed her up after the BSP had withdrawn support to the Mulayam Singh Yadav government.

Reacting to Singh's statement, SP spokesman and general secretary Mohan Singh said he is praising Mayawati and Gandhi because he has run out of options. "I think after appreciating them, he will abuse them. To comment on that will be like getting fooled. There is a defect in his personality and this defect is not of today," Mohan Singh said.