New Delhi: Former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh has said that he has not applied for entry to the party headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, and his meetings with the SP supremo were mostly due to personal reasons.
"There is no application on my behalf pending before the Samajwadi Party Parliamentary Board for re-entry", Amar Singh told India TV last night on its Aaj Ki Baat show.
"I had gone to Saifai (Mulayam Singh's hometown) to attend a social programme and it is wrong to say that I forcibly sat near Mulayam Singh ji in his car", Singh said.
"There were speeches by Ramgopal ji (party general secretary) and myself, and people can also say that I grabbed the mike. There is no need to rake up such controversies", he added.
"Mulayam Singh is the president of Samajwadi Party and it was his birthday. I have good relations with him, he invited me and I went there. You can check it out from Mulayam Singh ji", Singh said.
Amar Singh's clarifications come in the wake of his rival Azam Khan commenting that "a lot of waste comes when there is a storm".
Read Also: Aaj ki Baat: Amar Singh compares Azam Khan to a ‘sweeper'
On Amar Singh sitting with Mulayam Singh in his car, Azam Khan had commented that "even the driver and gunner sit with Mulayam Singh in his car".
Reacting to Azam Khan's remarks, Amar Singh said: "Some people have remarked about garbage coming in a storm. Actually one finds diamonds inside a mine, and it is the jeweller who can identify a diamond. A jamaadar (sweeper) is one who brushes off the garbage, including the diamond, because a jamaadar can only see garbage. He cannot identify a diamond."
"Had Mulayam Singh ji himself said that Amar Singh forcibly sat with me inside my car and he could not ask me to step out, I would not have reacted, because I did not gatecrash. Had I wanted to forcibly sit in his car, I could have done that too, and I would not have needed anybody's permission."
Amar Singh said, he had gone to Saifai at the invitation of Mulayam and "no political angle should be seen into this visit".
On Azam Khan's charge that Amar Singh was trying to wangle a Rajya Sabha nomination from Samajwadi Party, Amar Singh reacted: "I was nominated and elected thrice to Rajay Sabha for a total of 18 years. I would rather want his (Azam's) son should be given the Rajya Sabha ticket, since he (Azam Khan) is a minister and chancellor for life of Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, and his wife is in Rajya Sabha."
"I never sought Rajya Sabha ticket. I can challenge, let Mulayam Singh ji say if I ever sought an RS ticket from him. Without any application, without any approval from Parliamentary Board, Mulayam Singh ji sent me to Rajya Sabha thrice. I am indebted to him for that. 18 years are too long for me to be an RS member. Those who are worried about my Rajya Sabha nomination should have an Alprax tablet and have a sound sleep", Amar Singh said.
