Almost four years after being expelled from the Samajwadi Party, Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh shared the dais with party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav throwing enough hints that he may rejoin the party.
Amar Singh’s presence on the dais created tremors in the Samajwadi Party with senior UP Minister Azam Khan staying away from the function. Party’s another senior leader Ram Gopal Yadav was also
conspicuous by his absence.
All the chairs in the front row of the dais bore the names of the ministers. The chair adjacent to Mulayam Singh Yadav bore the name of Azam Khan but it was removed at around 10.45 am and was replaced with
the slip of Health Minister Ahmad Hasan’s name.
Sources said Azam Khan was not happy the way Mulayam Singh Yadav invited Amar Singh for the function. “On Monday night, Azam Khan had confirmed his participation but gave the function a miss at the last minute,” he said.
Addressing the function on the occasion of the inauguration of Janeshwar Mishra Park here on Tuesday, Singh cherished his relationship with Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav.
“I am grateful that Mulayamji invited me at the function. I cannot ignore the request of Netaji,” he said and added: “I am not a Samajwadi, but I am Mulayamwadi. I attended this function in my personal capacity and no one should read politics in it.”
Singh, however, commented that he got love and support from everyone though some of his friends left him midway.
“I suffered a lot in my life. I even went to jail, not on corruption charges, but because of political conspiracy,” Singh said and narrated in detail about his relationship with Janeshwar Mishra and what
political learning he got from him. “I have never seen such a honest and simple, loving person in my life,” he said.
Singh remained seated with Shivpal Singh Yadav, the younger brother of Mulayam Singh, and both of them were seen sharing jokes. When Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav arrived, both greeted Amar Singh. Barring this, the bonhomie between Amar Singh and Mulayam was missing, probably they preferred not to draw media attention.
Meanwhile, political grapevine is ripe about reasons of Singh breaking bread with Yadavs. Some say this move is made with an eye on Rajya Sabha election as Singh’s term expires on November 25.
Around the same time, the term of nine other MPs is slated to end.
With SP having a clear majority in Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the party is sure to be in a position to claim at least six of the seats.
Singh was a former national general secretary of SP and had unsuccessfully contested lok Sabha polls on Rashtriya lok Dal (RlD) ticket from Fatehpur Sikri.