Lucknow: Amar Singh, who survived the recent "outsider" storm in ruling Samajwadi Party, was on Tuesday appointed SP general secretary by party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
"You have been appointed general secretary of Samajwadi Party. I hope in the coming days you will strengthen the party in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections," Mulayam said in a handwritten letter to Amar.
The brief letter in Hindi signed by Mulayam on his Lok Sabha letter head was sent to media from state SP chief Shivpal Yadav's official e-mail id.
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Though SP bigwigs were strongly opposed to Amar, often described as an "outsider", Mulayam threw his weight behind him, first by making him a Rajya Sabha member some time back and now allotting him an important party post.
Interestingly, during the feud between Mulayam's brother Shivpal and son Akhilesh Yadav, Amar was seen as the one who had engineered it.
Akhilesh, while apparently referring to Amar, had recently said that "people from outside the household" keep interfering in the Samajwadi Party's affairs.
Mulayam's cousin Ram Gopal Yadav also had made a veiled attack on Amar during the feud, saying they have no love for the party and hence are creating trouble.
Commenting on that Amar had said, "Akhilesh is like a son and Mulayam like a brother."
Once the public face of the party, Amar was seen as Mulayam's closest aide when he had the ear of "Netaji".
Amar along with his close associate Jaya Prada were expelled from the Samajwadi Party in February, 2010, and he floated his own political party, Rashtriya Lok Manch, in 2011. He fielded a large number of candidates in 2012 assembly polls, but none won.
He had joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal and contested the 2014 Lok Sabha poll from Fatehpur Sikri, but lost.
More than six years after it expelled Amar, the Samajwadi Party 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 Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Chandra and the guests included Mulayam and his brother Shivpal, much to the chagrin of Akhilesh, who had shunted out Chief Secretary Deepak Singhal, who too attended the dinner.
He also divested Shivpal of his plum portfolios.
Taking strong exception to the move, Mulayam within hours replaced Akhilesh as the party's UP chief, with rivals in the SP accusing Amar of having influenced Mulayam.
Amar's discomfiture grew with Akhilesh becoming more assertive and it was reflected in his statement last month that those close to Mulayam were being "insulted" in the party and he was being made to sit on back benches in the Rajya Sabha.
He alleged he was being insulted, kept on "mute" and sidelined.
But, backing Amar to the hilt, Mulayam said he stood by him in his hard times.
Mulayam made the statement to defend Amar on the charge that he had triggered the family feud.
(With agency inputs)
