Ties with Mulayam Singh, Samajwadi Party over: Amar Singh

LUCKNOW: Amar Singh has said his relations with Muyalam Singh Yadav and the Samajwadi Party are over and that he is now a "free bull" that would "graze wherever there is greenery". "Main ab chhutta saandh ki tarah hun, jahan hariyaali dikhegi wahaan charungaa (I'm like a free bull, I shall graze wherever there is greenery)," the Rajya Sabha member told reporters in Varanasi on Sunday. "Chhutta saandh hun main, jahaan hariyaali dekhunga wahan muh marunga (I'm a free bull, I shall put my mouth wherever there is greenery)," he added.

Amar, who once called himself a "Mulayamwadi" (follower of Mulayam), accused his former mentor of turning into an "Akhileshwadi" (follower of Akhilesh Singh Yadav) and dumping him. "Mulayam ended his relations with me for the sake of the party, and I have been forced to leave the party because of my relations," he said without elaborating.

Samajwadi sources confirmed that Amar hadn't resigned from the party. However, Akhilesh's faction - now dominant in the party - had suspended Amar from the Samajwadis' primary membership at a disputed "national convention" on January 1. The convention had also replaced Mulayam with Akhilesh as party president and ousted Mulayam's brother Shivpal as state unit chief. The Election Commission last week handed Akhilesh's faction the official Samajwadi symbol on the ground of majority support, while skipping the question whether the January 1 convention was held in accordance with the party constitution. "Mulayam shouldn't have moved the Election Commission if he was ready to accept Akhilesh as national president of the Samajwadi Party," Amar said. "Mulayam has become an Akhileshwadi. He and Shivpal have agreed to function as party workers." Mulayam has not made any public statement that suggests he has accepted his son as party chief. When Akhilesh released the party's manifesto for the February-March Uttar Pradesh elections yesterday, Mulayam did not attend the event. Amar's Rajya Sabha seat now appears under threat. Usually, a lawmaker is disqualified from the House if he defects from his party and not if the party has sacked him. But if the party can convince the House's presiding officer that the member was guilty of anti-party activities, he can lose his seat. Akhilesh's chief adviser and the party's leader in the Rajya Sabha, Ram Gopal Yadav, is expected to write to Chairman Hamid Ansari making such a case against Amar. It was when reporters asked about his future plans that Amar compared himself to a "free bull". He also took a swipe at his long-time enemy Azam Khan, said to be the Samajwadis' Muslim face. "I had gone to London at Mulayam's suggestion while the battle in the Election Commission was on," he said. "Azam Khan had suggested to Mulayam that he ask me to leave the country for the time being. Azam convinced him that the dispute in the party was growing because of me." Before leaving for London on January 15, Amar had said he was travelling "for health reasons". Yesterday, he said he would again fly to London after celebrating his 61st birthday on January 27. Amar was in Varanasi to attend a function at the Garhwa Ghat ashram of Baba Harigyananand, a spiritual leader. He had visited the ashram last year along with Shivpal. Azam, a founder member of the party and a minister, is believed to have played a key role in Amar's expulsion from the party in 2010, a decision Mulayam had endorsed reluctantly. Mulayam had welcomed Amar back last summer and made him a Rajya Sabha member within weeks. -The Telegraph Calcutta