Samajwadi party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav created flutter in party circles today by claiming that the former party leader Amar Singh may not be in the party but he lives in his heart.
“Amar Singh may not be the formal member of the party, Amar Singh was in my heart, he is my heart and he will remain there. I always had very close ties with Amar Singh and there is no change in those relations and they will remain for all my life’’, said Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday who was on day long visit to his home district Etawah.Mulayam Singh said this while answering a specific question by the local scribes about the readmission of Amar Singh in the party.
The entry of Amar Singh in the party and his nomination for the Rajya Sabha for the record fourth term from the Samajwadi party is seen as fait accompali in the party circles. Eleven members of the Rajya Sabha from UP are retiring on July 4 this year. Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan is vehemently opposing the re entry of Amar Singh in the party and had issued highly critical statements against him during the birthday celebrations of Mulayam Singh Yadav at Saifai in November last year. Amar Singh had a long meeting with the chief minister Akhilesh Yadav here on January 26, fuelling speculations in political circles over his return to the party fold. He had however dismissed the speculations saying `` Every time I meet Netaji or Akhilesh, people start talking about my return to SP. I am neither on a political post nor do I have any business interest. Why do people look for reasons for such meetingsIJ”. He had described his meeting with the chief minister as a `social obligation’.
Amar Singh has already demonstrated his clout in the Samajwadi Party by getting his two nominees inducted in the council of ministers during the cabinet reshuffle in October last year. Balwant Singh Ramuwalia as cabinet minister and Madan Chauhan as minister of state.
In January 2010, Samajwadi Party Parliamentary Board terming Amar Singh as ` intruder’ had expelled Amar Singh from the party. Along with him the sitting party MP from Rampur Jayaprada and four MlAs Madan Chauhan, Sandeep Agarwal, Ashok Chandel and Sarvesh Singh, were also suspended from the party. Madan Chauhan, the protégé of Amar Singh, has now been elevated as the minister.