Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on sunday said that the Congress victory in just one of the 11 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh by-polls has proved hollow claims of that party's revival in the state.
"Indira Gandhi had lost to Raj Narain and even Atal Bihari Vajpayee had lost to a young Madhavrao Scindia in the past, but they bounced back in mainstream politics despite all this. Victory and loss in politics is meaningless (referring to SP losing Firozabad Lok Sabha seat to Congress).
After assembly by-polls in Uttar Pradesh, it has become clear that Congress is not experiencing any revival there," Singh told reporters in New Delhi.
He added that though the BSP swept the by-polls, winning nine of the 11 assembly seats, SP had finished second in most of them. It, however, failed to win any seat as the Congress and an Independent won the remaining two seats.
"Congress has two MPs from Jhansi and Kushinagar, who are ministers at the Centre. But their nominees could not win in Jhansi and Padrauna assembly by-polls and finished way behind our nominees.
After this Congress cannot claim that it will become the main opposition party in UP. Where is the revival of Congress now?" Singh asked. After getting 21 seats in UP in the Lok Sabha polls in May this year, Congress has been claiming a revival in the state.
Reacting to Congress' successful candidate from Firozabad LS seat Raj Babbar's comments on him, the SP leader said, "I will heed his comments on my health that I need to take rest, but on his statement that Yadav votes are nobody's monopoly (with Firozabad being SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's stronghold), I would like to say that if this is the case then even the country is not a monopoly of one particular family (referring to Gandhi clan)."
Singh also denied that he had written any letter to party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav seeking to be excused from active political activities owing to his poor health.
"If a letter had been written, then it would not have been available in public domain. But I would like to make it clear that I have not written any letter to Mulayam ji. Letters are written when there is a lack of dialogue.
But I am in regular touch with him all the time," he said. The SP leader added that since some time there have been rumours that several leaders have left the party because of him. "I will break my silence on this matter on November 17 in Lucknow on the occasion of felicitation of our MLA Abu Azmi," he said.
Singh said that as general secretary of the party, he has also revoked the suspension of a party worker Ramashray Vishwakarma, who had been removed by Mulayam on disciplinary grounds for reportedly making some anti-Amar Singh comments.
"If a party worker can be removed for making such comments, then I should have been removed long back as I have broken the discipline of the party many times," he said in a tongue-in-cheek manner. PTI
