Netaji stoops to conquer Azam Khan

At a press conference in Lucknow on Tuesday,Samajawadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav made an appeal for rapproachement to the party’s Muslim face,Mohammed Azam Khan,who is aggrieved with Yadav’s friendship with former BJP leader Kalyan Singh.

Virtually bowing to the revolt by Khan,Yadav said: “I should not have said these things before the media but I am sharing this since Azam Khan is incommunicado. Let Azam Khan come out and tell the people about my anti-Muslim acts. I am even ready to offer unconditional apology,” said Yadav. Flanked by Rajvir Singh,son of Kalyan Singh,Yadav said: “Today,I called on his phone for 20 times but every time Khan rejected my call. In the past,I had also sent feelers to him but he refused to meet them. Since my all efforts to contact Khan have exhausted,I am trying to communicate with him through the media.” On Monday,Khan had given a week’s time for Yadav to retract his statement giving clean chit to Kalyan Singh in the Babri mosque demolition case.

Khan is at loggerheads with the party ever since the SP chief announced his friendship with Kalyan and inducted his son Rajvir in the party. He is also opposed to the candidature of Bollywood star Jaya Prada from Rampur,his native place. Sources in the party say,now it’s practically all over between Khan and Yadav. “Khan’s grievance with Kalyan is merely an excuse,the real problem is his strained relations with Amar Singh and Jaya Prada,” said a SP leader.

Yadav’s appeal to Khan is seen as the last chance for the latter to fall in party’s line. “Never in the party’s history any leader was given such a long rope by Netaji ( Mulayam),Khan is exception since it is election time and we want to avoid any negative fallout in case he deserts the party,” said a senior leader of the party. SP sources said the party was confident that there will be no negative impact on its Muslim vote bank over the party’s ties with Kalyan Singh.