Amar Singh resigns as Samajwadi Party general secretary

High-profile Samajwadi Party spokesperson Amar Singh today resigned as its general secretary and other posts following deepening differences with party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, saying his priority now was his health, wife and children.
   
Singh, who is in Dubai, told PTI over phone that he has resigned as national general secretary, Spokesman and member of the Samajwadi Party parliamentary board. He faxed his resignation from all the three posts to Yadav, he said.

The 53-year-old leader, who was considered the right hand man of Yadav, insisted that there was "no political motive" behind his resignation but appeared bitter about the party.

After the kidney transplant he underwent in Singapore three months back, he said "my doctors said you are not well and you are living on somebody else's kidney. Once I came back, there has been no change in my lifestyle and there is no division of labour in the party."

He said he was resigning "strictly as per the advice of my doctors, who have asked me to take complete rest as I have just undergone a major kidney transplant operation."

"I had been giving more priority to Mulayam Singh Yadav and the party. After 20 years, now I should look after my children, wife and their welfare, over and above that of Mulayam Singh and the party," Singh said.

 Singh, who had attacked Mulayam Singh and his family over the party's humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha by election in Firozabad in November, at the same time maintained, "There is no difference with Yadav and I would not like to ditch him at this hour of crisis."

Asked if he would join any other party, Singh said, "I don't know what is in store for me by destiny or by my own making." He said no one was indispensable in the party and the show must go on. There were six or seven general secretaries and Ram Gopal Yadav or Reoti Raman Singh could take his position, he added.

Asked if he was blaming the party for his health, he said, "I am not blaming the party but I don't want to continue." He said it was only Bachchans and Ambanis who looked after him and they were like his family.

To a question, he said, "I don't feel cynical but I am only being practical." Singh maintained he was not quitting active politics but he was not in a position to discharge his responsibilities in SP. He had tried to resign three times in the past but his plea was not accepted, he said.

Singh's differences with the party leadership came to the fore during the Lok Sabha elections when he had a public spat with the party's Muslim face Azam Khan who had strongly opposed the candidature of Jaya Prada from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. Khan later quit the party. Singh insisted that there was "no political motive behind my resignation."

He said, "Family and my health comes first for me. Doctors have advised me complete rest and it is not possible to adhere to their advice while following such a hectic schedule. Therefore, I decided to resign from all the three posts".

Singh said he will continue to remain an ordinary worker of the party and has requested the SP chief to make Ram Gopal Yadav the party's national spokesperson in his place.

"Ram Gopal is already member of the Parliamentary Board of the party and also a general secretary and, therefore, he can become the spokesperson also," the SP leader said.

Singh said he will be going to Singapore where he was operated late last year to consult his doctors as he does not want his kidney problem to relapse and will be back in the country by the middle of this month.