Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Amar Singh Wednesday resigned as general
secretary of the party as well as from its parliamentary board and
as its spokesperson. Saying he was quitting the posts on health
grounds, the high-profile politician denied any differences with
party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. However,
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said Wednesday that he did
not know about the resignation.
“I hardly had any rest. Doctors told me it is not good. At the age
of 53, I am entitled to earned leave and need to give more priority
to my family. After 20 years of hard work, they (the family) should
get priority over Mulayamji and the party,” Amar Singh told NDTV.
Amar Singh had a kidney transplant at a Singapore hospital last
summer.
Speaking from Dubai, the SP leader denied he had any differences
with Yadav but insisted he would not withdraw his resignation.
But he would not mind shouldering another responsibility after
division of labour in the party, he added.
“I am very grateful to him (Mulayam Yadav) for all the opportunities
he has given to me. There are no differences. All my life, I will
not speak a word against him.”
The SP leader, who is a Rajya Sabha MP and one of the most visible
faces of the party, said he was not indispensable.
“Amar Singh or no Amar Singh, the party will do well. It has the
capability,” he said, adding that the party had many other general
secretaries.
He predicted that the party would do well in the forthcoming
legislative council polls in Uttar Pradesh.
In the past, Amar Singh has appeared miffed with party colleagues
who were not at his bedside in Singapore. “Only family members and
Bachchans and Ambanis” were with him at that time, he had said.
Asked if he was upset with his party, he said Wednesday: “I am more
practical now and more conscious of my responsibilities.”
The SP leader denied he was leaving active politics, though “I am
overburdened. I am not able to cope with the kind of
responsibilities (assigned)”.
Amar Singh said he had given his resignation to Mulayam Yadav thrice
earlier, but it was rejected every time.
“I am not likely to oblige him now as my priorities are my daughters
and my family,” he said, adding that he often worked 20 hours a day.
But he may agree to a “limited role”, he added.
Asked if he was looking at life outside SP, Amar Singh said he did
not know what was in store for him.
Some cracks in the Amar Singh-Mulayam Singh Yadav ties did appear in
recent months. First there was a difference of opinion on whether
former film actress Jaya Prada should be the party nominee from
Rampur in Utar Pradesh during last summer’s general elections.
That was papered over, but then came the defeat of Mulayam Yadav’s
daughter-in-law at the Ferozabad bypolls, followed by Amar Singh’s
remark that the major reason for the loss had been overconfidence on
the part of the Yadavs.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam
Singh Yadav said Wednesday that he did not know about the
resignation of his close aide Amar Singh as party general secretary,
spokesperson and from the parliamentary board.
“It’s (resignation) is an internal matter of the party,” Mulayam
Singh said.
“I have not come to know about it. I have
not heard of it (resignation)…And if it is, it’s the internal matter
of the party and you people (reporters) should not have any interest
in it,” the party chief told reporters in Etawah, about 300 km from
here.
Spokesperson for the SP in Uttar Pradesh
Rajendra Chaudhary also refused to confirm the resignation.
“We have not received any resignation at
the party’s Uttar Pradesh office. We cannot confirm the
resignation,” Chaudhary told IANS.
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