Reciprocating the feelings expressed by Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Jaya Bachchan, expelled SP MP Amar Singh on Sunday said: “I too miss her on this rostrum.”
Addressing a Kshatriya Mahakumbh rally here, Mr. Singh referred to Ms. Bachchan's statement that she missed him in the SP and said he felt for her similarly over her absence in the meeting.
He added that he would like her to join forces with him, underscoring that she was also unhappy with the affairs of the SP.
Speaking to journalists, Mr. Singh made it clear that he had no ill feeling towards the Bachchan family on account of Ms. Bachchan continuing with the SP after his expulsion.
“I detach politics from family relations. If Jayaji intends to be with the SP, I'd like to wish her all the best.”
However, he claimed that Ms. Bachchan was also dejected with the way the SP functioned and had even desisted him from raising his voice and take things within his stride.
Mr. Singh said he overlooked that counsel, attributing his outbursts against the SP chief to his being a kshatriya.
“How could I keep quiet? There is a limit to tolerance,” he said.
Separate Poorvanchal
While negating any possibility of his returning to the SP, Mr. Singh evaded questions on floating a new party as announced by him earlier.
He said the rally aimed at discussing the “kshatriya dharma” and he would struggle for a separate Poorvanchal State and reservation for the community, adding that he would use his social front, the Lok Manch, to unite kshatriyas and the OBCs and backward communities.
Mr. Singh said that going back to the SP would amount to negating his own self esteem and his standing among the Muslims and kshatriyas.
He was also critical of his Mr. Mulayam Singh's comment that men would whistle at women MPs, and wondered if the SP chief favoured reservations for women from the Dalit and Muslim communities and why at all he showered women from respectable families with tickets in the past.
Addressing the rally, the other expelled SP MP, Jaya Prada, also expressed her sense of relief at having left the party, and was particularly opposed to its stand on the Women's Reservation Bill. She described Mr. Mulayam Singh's comment on women as shameful.
