SP’s eclipse hurts frontman Amar Singh

The dip in the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) fortunes appears to be hitting its frontman, Amar Singh, the most. Those who opposed him in the past and found the going rough have become vocal again, as SP goes through one of its worst crises in two decades. So much so that Singh has been uncharacteristically

speaking of taking political sanyas and, contrary to his bombastic style, has been referring to himself as Mulayam Singh Yadav’s darzi or tailor.

A top party leader and former Lok Sabha MP said several missteps in the recent past that caused the SP’s fall could be laid at Amar’s door.

“The fight with Azam Khan was over the Rampur seat, which Amar wanted for Jaya Prada. While she won the seat, a lot of resources were directed to Rampur to counter the sleaze campaign run by Azam,” he said. “Raj Babbar, who humbled netaji’s (Mulayam’s) bahu in the Firozabad byelection, also left the party because of differences with Amar,” he said.

In the past, Mulayam had staunchly defended Amar, who he credits, in private, for raising SP’s profile and bringing in funds. At a party meeting a couple of years ago, a few old-timers and MPs told Mulayam that Amar’s confrontational politics was creating more enemies than friends. The SP chief told them that what Amar brought to the party was priceless, and if anybody could do what he had done, they were welcome to try, the ex-MP said . “At that time, the party had nearly 40  Lok Sabha MPs, therefore nobody said a word. Now, we are under siege and our core constituency is deserting us,” he said.
“The fight in UP is between the Congress and the BSP. We need to buckle down and get back in the race. This can be done only with a clear political vision. The time for patronising filmstars  and  industrialists is over,” he said.

Mulayam has maintained a studied silence in this matter, but Amar’s declaration that he would like to be identified as a party worker has signaled that this time Mulayam may have to listen to his old colleagues.