Samajwadi Party may be bitterly opposed to BJP but it is not happy over the rumblings within that party as it feels that disintegration of the main opposition party will not augur well for the country’s polity.
“For the sake of democracy, we think that BJP should not disintegrate. Its weakening will not be good for democracy as it is the main opposition party. Moreover, Congress will become pompous if this happens, and it will hijack all significant posts,” SP general secretary Amar Singh told on Thursday from Singapore, where he is recovering after a kidney transplant operation.
Mr. Singh at the same time said being the third largest party in the country after Congress and BJP, SP would be willing to fill the vacuum created by BJP.
He, however, refused to comment on whether SP will welcome into its fold other BJP leaders like Arun Shourie or Yashwant Sinha (both of whom are unhappy with BJP leadership), though he said feelers have been sent to Jaswant Singh to join SP.
“Yashwant Sinha was with us earlier (during Samajwadi Janata Party days in early 1990s). We all worked together, but it will not be right to comment on leaders of other parties,” Mr. Singh said, adding “politics is not played on possibilities“.
The SP leader said he respects Mr. Shourie, “but his (Shourie’s) main concern is that RSS should take the reins of BJP in its hands and not allow the party to drift away.” Mr. Singh described him as a river which “cannot be tamed“.
