Hyderabad, March 15: Sonia Gandhi praised the late P.V. Narasimha Rao today, probably the first time she is doing so in public since she took charge of the Congress.

Inaugurating Shamshabad airport, Sonia referred to an under-construction expressway that will be named after the former Prime Minister. “The expressway is a fitting tribute to Narasimha Rao who connected India to the path of economic reforms.”

Relations between the Nehru-Gandhi family and Rao were always said to have been frosty.