Past master is past master

This was just days after Mulayam had rung up Singh to invite him for the Sefai fest,an annual event hosted by the SP chief in his native town.

At his Mondays press conference in the Capital,Amar Singh indicated that he was already taking the first steps away from Mulayam,taking a stand contrary to known SP positions on several issues.

While the falling out may have played out in public,the signs that all was not well within the SP have been around for some time:

n Political observers now trace the rift back to August,when Amar Singhs missing posters at the partys Agra meeting had set tongues wagging. Singh was at the time in Singapore recovering after a kidney transplant. Word apparently got to him,and if senior SP workers are to be believed,Amar Singh rang up Kalyan Singh who incidentally was a prominent presence at the session and cautioned him against Mulayams cousin Ram Gopal Yadav. Little did Amar Singh know that this conversation was caught on a loudspeaker,and overheard by a Ram Gopal loyalist. The latter lost no time getting back to Singh,and the stage for the feud between the two general secretaries of the party to prove costly for Amar Singh had been set.

n The Ferozabad Lok Sabha by-election was the next turning point. Vacated by Mulayams son Akhilesh,the ticket for the seat had been given to daughter-in-law Dimple,who was making her poll debut. During the campaign,there was a fracas when Singh got a backward class state council legislator suspended from the party for allegedly badmouthing him. However,Ram Gopal intervened and the legislator was re-instated within days.

n Amar Singh again found himself sidelined when it came to the Legislative Council elections from Ballia,where he wanted a ticket for former prime minister Chandra Shekhars grand nephew Ravishanker Singh Pappu. Ram Gopal now acted in concert with SP ideologue Janeshwar Mishra to deny Pappu the ticket. When an angry Singh announced his resignation from all party positions on the eve of the Legislative Council elections,old guards like Mishra,Mohan Singh and Brijbhushan Tiwari accused him of hurting party prospects in the elections. Pappu went on to win the polls,on a BSP ticket.

By now,the war between Amar Singh and Ram Gopal was open,with the latter saying the SP would be better off without Amar. If Amar Singh managed to get behind him Moradabad legislator Sandeep Agarwal,claiming the support of at least 25 party MLAs,some Muslim legislators of the party backed Ram Gopal and blamed Amar Singh for the SPs misfortune.

n However,according to sources,one of the real reasons for the friction between Amar Singh and the SP was the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections this summer,when seven of the partys MPs are to retire. The SP has the numbers to re-elect only two,and Amar Singh wanted one of those tickets for his political protégé Jaya Bachchan,who is among those retiring. He was given to understand that this would not happen. Apparently Amar Singh hoped his act of resignation would force Mulayams hand,but he found himself cornered and alone.

All through Mulayam maintained a studied silence,trying to guage the reaction of party cadre. And this is where Amar Singh tripped up,for a majority spoke out against him. The seasoned politician that he is,Mulayam let the situation fester for some more time before making his announcement.

Amar Singh didnt help his cause by taking potshots where Mulayam is the most vulnerable his family. The SP chief didnt take kindly to him using his newly launched blog to note that while Mulayam opposed the use of English language,his own sons Akhilesh and Prateek studied in English medium.

Even the opposition parties never brought this up,and second,Mulayam never allows public criticism about his son Prateek. This went against Amar, said a senior SP leader.

In an earlier attack on the family,Amar Singh had hinted that the Ferozabad bypoll loss may have been on account of Mulayam kins inordinate influence. That hurt,given what a prestige election it was for Mulayam.

Amar Singhs detractors within the SP,and there were many,lost no time moving in for the kill. Already on the backfoot over charges that he brought Kalyan Singh close to the SP,leading to resignation of senior leaders like Azam Khan,he was now blamed for all the ills befalling the party including the turning away of its core support bases like minorities and some non-Yadav backward classes.

With Amar Singh gone,the SPs old Socialist guards like Janeshwar Mishra,Ram Gopal,Mohan Singh,Ramjilal Suman and Brijbhushan Tiwari are expected to take charge,beginning a fresh chapter of anti-Congress politics.

Meanwhile,in a reversal of fortune he may have scripted at other times,in two days,Amar Singhs shrinking support base has gone into free fall. MLA Agarwal,who promised to line up 25 MLAs behind him,could rustle up only four for him at the Monday press meet. Even political protégé and Rampur MP Jaya Prada,for whom he was said to have taken on Azam Khan,was not on his side.

There is talk that Amar Singh may float a political outfit bleeding the SP from the outside or let out some of the skeletons in his cramped cupboard about the party hurting it from within. However,with party MLAs in Uttar Pradesh still having two years left of their tenure and its MPs a long way away from finishing theirs,even Amar Singh may not bet on his chances.