Amar Singh hints at grand political experiments

A day after his resignation from all party posts was accepted, Amar Singh on Monday said he will be in Samajwadi Party till he is "booted out" of it and announced a series of programmes that appeared to test political waters.

Addressing a press conference, he made sarcastic remarks about the leadership saying he has been now "freed from the bonds" following the acceptance of his resignation from party posts. He, however, maintained that he was a loyal soldier of the party.

"I will be in the party till I am booted out... I will also stick to my vow not to speak against SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and other top leaders," said Singh, who was accompanied by actor Sanjay Dutt at the press conference.

Referring to Mulayam and his close relatives -- Ram Gopal Yadav, Shivpal Yadav, Akhilesh Singh and Dharmendra Yadav, Amar Singh said they constituted the party and in their wisdom, they accepted his resignation.

In snide remarks, he said accepting the advice of senior leader Janeswar Mishra he would now try to become a 'Samajwadi' (Socialist) instead of being a 'Mulayamwadi' (Mulayamite).

Asked whether he was hinting at the party being a family affair, he said, "I am not saying, people say this."

In apparent testing of waters, Amar Singh said he would meet "true" socialists like Raghu Thakur, a Madhya Pradesh leader, and participate in various programmes in Rampur, Mathura and Ghazipur.

Amar Singh maintained that he had resigned from the party posts on health grounds but the party leadership gave a political colour to it with even one of the family members attacking him through media.

But when asked about the contradiction in his statement that he was resigning on health grounds and now undertaking a month-long hectic schedule to tour various towns in UP, he said he would be taking rest in between.

"It is not like a 24X7 job that I had as an office bearer all along," he said.

Referring to Mulayam Singh Yadav's statement on Monday morning that he would be looking ahead and not to the past, Amar Singh sarcastically remarked: "Why should somebody care about someone who has been left behind because of his poor health".

"Let him bring healthy people like Azam Khan (who was expelled from SP after a tiff with Mulayam). Physically invalid people like me are ready to be left behind," he said.

He also made a veiled attack on Mulayam Singh's opposition to computers and English and cited Ram Manohar Lohia's philosophy advocating small machines.

"Computers are small machines and Lohia would have definitely supported it. Children should learn English and computers. Village children should learn English and computers so that they can be on par with children in cities," he said.

Amar Singh also supported the idea of smaller states like Bundelkhand, Harit Pradesh and Telangana, some of which have also been supported by BSP chief Mayawati.

"I am very much concerned about the poor state of affairs in UP and therefore while remaining a loyal party worker, I will propagate trifurcation of UP and formation of Poorvanchal, Bundelkhand and Harit Pradesh," Amar Singh said.

"Earlier, as a decision maker in the party, I had officially opposed formation of smaller states but now I feel as long as Poorvanchal, Bundelkhand and Harit Pradesh are not formed, there can be no development possible for the state," he said.

Noting that there should not be politics on the issue, he said he would suggest SP that it should move ahead with times and should support smaller states like Poorvanchal.

Amar Singh said, "like K Chandrasekar Rao agitated for Telangana, I may also think on those lines on going on an agitation to see if by this method Poorvanchal, Bundelkhand and Harit Pradesh can be formed."

In an effort to address Muslim supporters, Singh said he had no hand in bringing Kalyan Singh close to SP leadership. Nor did he play any role in former SP MPs like Saleem Sherwani and Shafiqur Rehman Barq leaving the party and joining BSP (they had left SP in 2008 over their opposition to nuclear deal).

Attacking SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, Amar Singh said, "let Mulayam Singh Yadav groom Ram Gopal, I am content being his Eklavya. But I will not give my thumb to him."