After Amar Singh resigned from organisational posts, the Samajwadi Party is waiting for him and SP president Mulayam Singh to make their next moves. Even Mr. Amar Singh’s detractors in the party prefer to remain silent, because the situation, they feel, is still fluid.
Mr. Mulayam Singh, who returned here from Etawah on Friday, remained billeted within his Vikramaditya Marg official residence. His son and Uttar Pradesh SP unit president Akhilesh Singh Yadav spent some time in the party headquarters but said nothing about the resignation controversy. Mr. Mulayam Singh’s brother, Ram Gopal Yadav, attended a pre-nuptial function at hotel Taj Residency here and he also refused to make any comment.
“Unless the party president takes a clear-cut line whether Amar Singh is indispensable or not, it would not be advisable to say anything on the controversy,” said an MLA from Eastern Uttar Pradesh. “Moreover, it is still not known whether his resignation will be accepted.”
Reacting to the latest crisis in the SP, a former Minister from a neighbouring district said the wheel has come full circle. He did not elaborate.
Party sources said the denial of nomination to Ravi Shankar Singh “Pappu” from Ballia in Thursday’s Legislative Council polls, whose case was reportedly been pleaded by Mr. Amar Singh, proved the flashpoint in the already tense relationship between Mr. Mulayam Singh and the national general secretary. The SP nomination went to Randhir Singh, brother of Suraj Deo Singh, an alleged don of Bihar’s coal mafia.
Taking advantage of the intra-party dispute in the SP, the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party fielded Mr. Ravi Shankar Singh from Ballia. The sources said Mr. Ravi Shankar Singh and Mr. Randhir Singh were close to the former Prime Minister S. Chandra Shekhar, who hailed from Ibrahim Patti in Ballia district.
The sources claimed that Neeraj Shekhar, SP MP from Ballia and Chandra Shekhar’s son, who also pleaded Mr. Ravi Shankar Singh’s case, was cut up with the party’s decision and did not campaign for Mr. Randhir Singh.
Meanwhile, reports of Mr. Amar Singh going over to the Nationalist Congress Party were denied by NCP sources in Lucknow.
