Ousted Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, who for years called the shots in Mulayam Singh Yadav's political outfit, now appears to be fighting a losing battle -- to acquire a political identity of his own.
currently struggling to play a second innings by taking recourse to the grass-root passage.
And rightly so, he has taken up the issue of statehood for 'Purvanchal' (Eastern UP) as his launch pad, for which he undertook a month long march from Allahabad that was to culminate at Gorakhpur on December 30.
Holding the banner of his newly formed Lok Manch, Amar Singh was busy addressing rallies in different districts of Uttar Pradesh, in the hope that the issue so close to the hearts of the poverty-ridden populace of the vast expanse, would eventually propel them to rally behind him.
However, the umpteen rallies addressed by him since he launched the 'Purvanchal Swabhiman Vikas Yatra', have not proved to be truly encouraging.
Despite having pumped in huge resources, Amar Singh has not been able to either draw sufficient crowds or get his desired publicity.
"If Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai were to be just waiving out from their balcony, all newspapers and news channels would flash that on page one; and here I am raising such an important issue of statehood for Purvanchal and no media is ready to accord suitable space to it", he
laments at almost every rally.
Justifying his call for carving out an independent Purvanchal, he cites the example of smaller states like Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand. "If areas spread across just four Lok Sabha constituencies can be given statehood, then why not Purvanchal, which has as many as 28 Lok Sabha and 147 state assembly constituencies?" he asked at almost every rally.
However he remained at his wit's end when he is confronted with the pointed query --"Why did this not strike him when he was virtually calling the shots during two regimes of Mulayam Singh Yadav?"
The same questions were raised each time he attempted to stoke the Purvanchal fire by commenting, "Successive political parties have only exploited this Purvanchal region, which in return has only received backwardness, poverty and exploitation."
Ironically, he even embarked upon "sale of rich state-run sugar mills for a song" -- when he was the one who had initiated the privatisation move during the Mulayam rule.
What was worse that he begins and ends his speeches with heavy Mulayam bashing, which was likely to prove counter-productive as it was common knowledge that he was party to every decision taken by the Mulayam government.
"If Amar Singh thinks he can absolve himself o the responsibility of Mulayam's doings, he is mistaken because who does not know that Amar Singh was the last word in the Samajwadi Party as Mulayam Singh Yadav reposed sublime faith in him," observed a Mulayam confidante.
"It was only after Mulayam Singh Yadav showed him the door that Amar Singh started accusing him of promoting 'dynastic' politics; why did not raise his voice if he actually felt any ideological differences with his political mentor", asked Mulayam's younger brother Shivpal Yadav, who was the leader of opposition in the state assembly.
Dismissing Amar Singh as an "opportunist" and "climber", he remarked, "If Amar Singh thinks that he can make political gains by training his guns at his mentor, who gave him a political status, let him please himself; he is only exposing himself in the bargain."
Despite all the effort and toll, Amar Singh has failed to muster up any mass support. He was depending largely on his Bollywood pals -- Jaya Prada and Sanjay Dutt. Jaya Prada keeps Amar Singh boosted up with her oft repeated remark -- "Once Purvanchal gets statehood, Amar Singh's name will go down in history as the man who spearheaded the campaign to achieve that goal." But whether her dream would ever turn into reality, was surely a million dollar question.
