Senior Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Monday ruled out withdrawal of his resignation from party posts, saying he would “not slog” for the organisation the way he used to. Insisting that he had not quit the party posts due to any “anguish or unhappiness”, Mr. Singh said he would continue to work for the organisation “but I am definitely not going to slog for the party the way I have slogged all this time.”
“All the speculation and hype are unnecessary that I am angry...the resignation that I have tendered, I am not going to take it back,” he said.
Mr. Singh’s comments came after party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday refused to accept his resignation.
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Both the leaders spoke to each other this morning and during the conversation, Mr. Yadav invited Mr. Singh to join the Saifai Mahotsav, which started Monday.
Downplaying any strain in his relationship with Mr. Yadav, Mr. Singh said his resignation should not be seen as a “revolt” against the party. “Mulayam Singh has consistently given me due recognition, he has given me preference over Ram Gopal Yadav (party General Secretary),” Mr. Singh told a TV news channel, adding he does not want Mr. Yadav to force him to choose between his family and the party.
On Ram Gopal Yadav, the SP chief’s cousin, Mr. Singh said the former has been “misled” by somebody. “This happens in a large family,” he said, adding that he holds a lot of affection for him.
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The SP leader said as he is close to Mr. Yadav, he could tolerate (anything against himself) but “why should Sanjay Dutt or for that matter any other artiste, who has given his sweat and blood to the party, tolerate any negative comment (about themselves).” He was referring to Mr. Ram Gopal Yadav’s earlier remark that film artistes have ruined the party.
In an effort to portray that everything was normal between him and the party leadership, Mr. Singh said “Akhilesh (Mulayam’s son) is my own kid and I speak to him daily. I have no grouse against Mulayam ji , though there is no pressure on me to run the party.”
Attacking veteran SP leader Janeshwar Mishra, Mr. Singh said, “I am not Janeshwar Mishra, who is a big leader, but I sit in Rajya Sabha regularly. He (Mishra) never comes to the House though he is a senior leader.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Singh found support in his estranged brother Arvind Singh who lashed out at the party leadership for using and humiliating his ailing brother. “Amar Singh worked day and night for Samajwadi Party to strengthen it and in return he was humiliated by party leaders,” Mr. Arvind Singh, a BJP member, said in Ballia in UP.