In a surprise move, just a few days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav obliquely accused the controversial Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh of fomenting trouble in the Samajwadi Party, its supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav appointed Amar Singh as the national general secretary of the party on Tuesday. Incidentally, Amar is considered close to SP State president Shivpal Yadav.
The handwritten letter, appointing Amar as the national general secretary, written by Mulayam Singh on his Member of Parliament letterhead was issued on Tuesday and released to the media.
“You have been appointed as the national general secretary of the party and we expect that you will put all your efforts to ensure the victory of the party in the 2017 Assembly elections in UP,” it said.
Amar will now be the third general secretary of the party along with Ram Gopal Yadav and Azam Khan, both of whom are vehemently opposed to him and were instrumental in the expulsion of the wily Thakur from the party in January 2010.
This is the third consecutive setback for Akhilesh Yadav in the last three days, ever since the feud in the first family of the SP surfaced on September 11.
On September 18, the newly-appointed SP State president of the party Shivpal Yadav, sacked one MlC Arvind Yadav, nephew of Ram Gopal Yadav and on Monday three MlCs and four heads of the frontal organisations of the party known as “team Akhilesh” were expelled from the party.
Just last week Akhilesh had addressed Amar Singh as an Rs outsider’ responsible for the feud in the family and said that he would never address Amar Singh as Rs uncle’ anymore.
Even though Akhilesh is the chairman of the State Parliamentary Board of the party, the elevation of Amar Singh will add to the political challenges before the Chief Minister within the party, as the Rajya Sabha MP will have a role in the distribution of tickets for the 2017 Assembly elections.
Earlier in the day, Akhilesh claimed that the SP stands united and the SP family was the same as it was in the past and will unitedly fight the elections and form the next Government in Uttar Pradesh.
Amar Singh has become the general secretary of the SP after a long gap of six-and-a-half years. He had resigned from all posts of the party on January 6, 2010 and later was expelled along with his close aide Rampur MP Jaya Prada and six MlAs by Mulayam Singh in February 2010.
Amar Singh later floated his own political party, Rashtriya lok Manch, in 2011, and fielded candidates in 360 of the 403 seats in the State Assembly elections in 2012 and drew a blank. He joined the Rashtriya lok Dal party in March 2014, and contested the lok Sabha election from Fatehpur Sikri and lost.