Back in action, Amar Singh flays UPA over bungalow

Amar Singh is back in New Delhi and so is the 'politics of conspiracy' between the Congress and his Samajwadi Party.

After returning to the national capital on Sunday after a gap of three months and a kidney transplant, Singh, the Samajwadi Party general secretary, didn't waste much time in firing his first salvo against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.

He charged the Congress with a conspiracy against SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and denying him an appropriate bungalow.

Yadav is an elected member in the 15th Lok Sabha. Singh alleged that although Yadav is entitled to a type-VIII bungalow -- the biggest government accommodation for MPs -- the Congress is deliberately not giving him one.

"Some people in the Congress have influenced J P Agarwal (Congress MP and chairman of the Lok Sabha housing committee) from allotting an official accommodation to our leader Mulayam Singh Yadav," Singh said in a press conference at his plush Lodhi Estate bungalow.

As a former defence minister and a leader of a national party, Yadav is entitled to a type-VIII bungalow.

According to Lok Sabha sources, Yadav had been allotted one at Kautilya Marg, near Chanakyapuri. But it was then found to be part of the judges' accommodation pool.

"It has been so many months but Mulayam Singh has not been allotted official accommodation so far," Amar Singh said.

J P Agarwal, however, denied these charges and said, "The Congress has nothing to do with this. As soon as another type-VIII bungalow is available, it will be allotted to him."