Ending its tenuous relationship with its former national general secretary Amar Singh and Lok Sabha member Jaya Prada, the Samajwadi Party on Tuesday expelled both of them for engaging in anti-party activities and damaging the SP’s socialist image by “infiltrating capitalism and communalism” into
the party.
Newly appointed national general secretary Mohan Singh told mediapersons that Amar Singh had been engaging in activities against the party for the past month-and-a-half and had floated a parallel organisation called the Lok Manch.
As for Jaya Prada, the party said she had been “spitting venom” at the SP leadership and party policies and was a “guided missile of Amar Singh”.
The decision to expel the MPs (Amar Singh is a Rajya Sabha member) was taken at an SP meeting chaired by party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The party also decided to petition the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman to terminate memberships of the two MPs from the respective Houses on the ground that their anti-party activities amounted to defection. Cracking down on Amar Singh loyalists, the SP suspended the party memberships of four UP MLAs.
Amar Singh saw his expulsion as a “blessing in disguise” and is in no mood to quit membership of the Rajya Sabha.
“I have earned the Rajya Sabha seat and not got it in alms,” Singh said soon after the announcement of his expulsion was made in Lucknow. “Mohan Singh is eyeing my Rajya Sabha seat but I will not quit. I have not been asked to quit by Mulayam Singh,” Amar Singh said.
Dismissing speculation that he was negotiating an entry into the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Singh told CNN-IBN channel he would work under the banner of the Lok Manch to bring the Rajput and backward communities together.
He also ruled out joining the Nationalist Congress Party or the Congress. Denying having praised Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati in a television interview, Amar Singh said he had only empathised with her. “She had a bitter experience with the SP after withdrawing support from that party. Since I am also in a similar position now, I can understand her pain. She had also been a victim of the SP,” he said.