As Amar Singh?s outbursts against his own party get increasingly shrill, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday promoted his erstwhile confidant?s detractors in the party by anointing them in the positions vacated by him?that too on the latter?s birthday.
Former Lok Sabha MP Mohan Singh, the person replacing Amar Singh in the party, went a step further. Amar Singh was only ?technically? in the party, he said, and he should resign from his Rajya Sabha membership as it had been bestowed upon him by the party.
?The SP president has decided to appoint Rajya Sabha MP Brijbhushan Tiwari as party vice-president while appointing Mohan Singh as the party?s national general secretary, member of the party?s central parliamentary board and also as party spokesperson,? SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav announced in the capital, adding that the SP chief has also appointed Vishambhar Nishad and Ram Asarey Kushwaha as national general secretaries on the positions vacated by Amar Singh loyalists, Sanjay Dutt and Obaidullah Azmi.
That both Brijabhushan Tiwari and Mohan Singh are known detractors of Amar Singh who had come out openly in support of Ram Gopal Yadav after he raised the red flag against Amar Singh, were rewarded by the SP chief sent out a clear signal?there was going to be no mending of fences between the party and the estranged leader.
?Though technically he (Amar Singh) has not quit the party, but practically he appears to have quit. In this backdrop, morality demands that if he has ceased to find merit in the party?s beliefs, he should resign from all the posts bestowed upon him, including Rajya Sabha membership of the party,? Mohan Singh said. He also indicated that the SP would be re-thinking its support to the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre in the future.
In response, Amar Singh stuck to his guns, rejecting Mohan Singh?s demand for his resignation: ?The last Assembly elections (in Uttar Pradesh) were contested in the name of Mulayam Singh and me. Main udhaar ka sindur thodi na hun ? the party legislators were elected on the banners projecting Mulayam Singh and my image together, and it was these MLAs who elected me to the Rajya Sabha. I am not going to resign. Mulayam Singh Yadav spoke to me today and he did not ask me to resign either.? He dismissed the appointment of his detractors in the party saying that it did not matter as the party was in the complete control of Mulayam?s family.
?I just don?t care (about these appointments), when I am completely detached from party politics. How does it matter when all decisions in the party are made by the paanch pyaare?Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav, Shivpal Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and Dharmendra Yadav,? he said. Amar Singh also continued his tirade against the SP?s public positions on various issues and said that the party needed to re-invent itself to make itself relevant in the current situation.
?It is high time the party re-invented itself particularly on its positions regarding English and division of Uttar Pradesh? party leaders are opposed to my blogging? opposition to blogging is like talibanisation,? Amar Singh said.
