AMAR 2 LAST

Interestingly, during the feud between Mulayam’s brother Interestingly, during the feud between Mulayam’s brotherShivpal and son Akhilesh Yadav, Amar Singh was seen as the onewho had engineered it. Akhilesh, while apparently referring to Amar Singh, hadrecently said that "people from outside the household" keepinterfering in the Samajwadi Party’s affairs. Mulayam’s cousin Ram Gopal Yadav also had made a veiledattack on Amar Singh during the feud, saying they have no lovefor the party and hence are creating trouble. Commenting on that Amar had said, "Akhilesh is like a sonand Mulayam like a brother." Once the public face of the party, Amar was seen asMulayam’s closest aide when he had the ear of "Netaji". Amar along with his close associate Jaya Prada wereexpelled from the Samajwadi Party in February, 2010 and hefloated his own political party, Rashtriya Lok Manch, in 2011.He fielded a large number of candidates in 2012 assemblypolls but none won. He had joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal and contested the2014 Lok Sabha poll from Fatehpur Sikri but lost. More than six years after it expelled Amar, the SamajwadiParty made him its Rajya Sabha candidate a few months back,setting the stage for his return to the party. Amar had recently hosted a party for independent RajyaSabha MP Subhash Chandra and the guests included Mulayam andhis brother Shivpal Yadav, much to the chagrin of Akhilesh,who shunted out Chief Secretary Deepak Singhal, who tooattended the dinner. He also divested Shivpal of his plum portfolios. Taking strong exception to the move, Mulayam within hoursreplaced Akhilesh as the party’s UP chief, with rivals in theSP accusing Amar of having influenced Mulayam. Amar Singh’s discomfiture grew with Akhilesh becoming moreassertive and it was reflected in his statement last monththat those close to Mulayam were being "insulted" in the partyand he is being made to sit on back benches in the RajyaSabha. He alleged he was being insulted, kept on "mute" andsidelined. But, backing Amar to the hilt, Mulayam said he stood byhim in his hard times. Mulayam made the statement to defend Amar on the chargethat he had triggered the family feud in Yadav clan. PTI ABNSMIAKK