Amar wants out, SP won’t oblige
The Samajwadi Party (SP) is not in a hurry to expel dissident leader Amar Singh, but is making it increasingly clear that they want him out.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) is not in a hurry to expel dissident leader Amar Singh, but is making it increasingly clear that they want him out.
Amar, for his part, is also trying his best to needle the party leadership into doing precisely that. He emphatically said he would not resign from his Rajya Sabha seat.
“Amar Singh is a closed chapter now. Not even a dog from the party has gone to call on him,” party spokesman Mohan Singh said on Friday.
But Amar struck back. Livid at the way senior SP leaders were publicly humiliating him, he said: “This is Mulayam’s style of taking on his opponents. He used me as just as he is using Mohan Singh today.”
For good measure, he added: “I would not have responded like this had Mohan Singh not claimed he was speaking on behalf of the party president.”
Mulayam Singh himself is not in a hurry to join the war of words. He is still mourning the death of his senior colleague Janeshwar Mishra. “I will speak only after the teharveen (thirteenth day after death). I am still grieving my friend's death. It’s a personal loss,” he told HT.
It’s obvious that Amar won’t quit on his own. If he does, he will have to vacate his Rajya Sabha seat, which he won on an SP ticket.
“I would have resigned my Rajya Sabha seat had the party not ‘pinpricked’ me. Let them expel me (under the law, he can retain his RS seat if this happens). I will be a free man. But while standing in a confession box, I will speak the truth irrespective of who gets exposed and how,” Amar said.
He was quick to add that here he was referring to issues like criminals in the party and not to alleged secrets of Mulayam.
Amar found the attitude of the BSP administration “sympathetic”. While denying that he had met Mayawati’s emissary in Mumbai soon after his return from Dubai, he said: “We are holding rallies and I do find their attitude sympathetic.”
Earlier, responding to Amar’s claims of having CDs relating to activities of the SP president’s family, Mohan Singh said: “ We are waiting for the CDs.”
He denied the SP president had demanded information about party funds when Amar was in hospital in Singapore last year: “It may be his (Amar’s) apprehension that the SP president might demand to know the details,” Mohan Singh said.
Amar said he couldn’t understand why SP leaders were targeting him. “I have given my kidneys for the party. I had simply asked for a sick leave. Instead of granting me that, a member of the first family is abusing me, not once but four times.”
Amar reiterated he was willing to face Mulayam’s son Akhilesh in their pocket borough of Kannauj.
(With inputs from Srinand Jha in New Delhi)