Rebel Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Saturday fired fresh salvos at his party detractors while having a sympathetic word for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. Mayawati, who is also Bahujan Samaj Party chief, is a strong opponent of the Samajwadi Party. Singh said Mayawati had proved herself and he could understand her “pain” when she was “humiliated” by the Samajwadi Party (SP).
He said in a television interview, “Now I can sense her pain (in) the guest house episode.”
He was recalling the incident in which SP workers had surrounded the Uttar Pradesh State Guest House in Lucknow in 1995 and roughed her up after the Bahujan Samajwadi Party had withdrawn support to the Mulayam Singh Yadav government.
Replying to his critics demanding his resignation from the Rajya Sabha, Amar Singh said at a public meeting in Ghazipur, 350 km north-east of Lucknow, that he would do so if Yadav returned him his kidney he had sacrificed in the service of the party.
“To those who have been demanding my resignation from the Rajya Sabha, I have to say that if Mulayam Singh Yadav returns my kidney, I would resign,” he said.
Breaking his silence since he quit key party posts, Amar Singh said nobody was indispensable.“Hasn’t the Congress survived without Jawaharlal Nehru? Wouldn’t the SP be alive without me? It would,” he told reporters in Hardoi, 110 km west of Lucknow.
{{/usCountry}}Breaking his silence since he quit key party posts, Amar Singh said nobody was indispensable.“Hasn’t the Congress survived without Jawaharlal Nehru? Wouldn’t the SP be alive without me? It would,” he told reporters in Hardoi, 110 km west of Lucknow.
{{/usCountry}}Amar Singh and his loyalists in the party will meet in New Delhi on Sunday to discuss their options and strategy.
Two party MPs, Jaya Bachchan and Jaya Prada, are likely to attend the meeting, which will be followed by a press conference.