Friendship Day? Mulayam Appears With Amar Singh, Who He Expelled

Lucknow: In what seems to have caused much heartburn in the Samajwadi Party, expelled leader Amar Singh today shared the stage with party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav at an event in Lucknow, signaling a rapprochement after a bitter political feud.

Mr Yadav's son, Akhilesh, who is Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, was also present. But at least 12 of the party's 14 members of Parliament, including Mulayam's brother Ram Gopal Yadav, pointedly stayed away.

Also missing, was senior UP minister Azam Khan, a known rival of Amar Singh, whose comeback in the party had coincided with Mr Singh's rapid fall from favour four years ago.

Mr Singh, 58, is a member of the Rajya Sabha. For years a close aide of Mulayam Singh and the regional party's 'Delhi face', he was sacked in 2010 from the Samajwadi Party for "anti-party activities" along with actor-politician Jaya Prada.

Today, Mr Yadav had invited Amar Singh for the inauguration of a Lucknow park dedicated to socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra.

"This is an apolitical programme. I am attending it on Mulayam Singh's invitation. I have worked with Janeshwarji and follow his ideology," Mr Singh said.

Mr Singh was never popular with other SP leaders. By staying away from today's function, the SP's top leaders have signaled that they will fight any attempt by him to stage a comeback. Ram Gopal Yadav gruffly denied a rebellion, saying MPs did not attend the Lucknow event as Parliament is in session.

Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka Raja Bhaiyya, a controversial minister in the UP government who is not an SP member,  observed at the Lucknow function, "We should learn from Mulayam Singh how to respect old relationships."

After he was thrown out of the SP, Mr Singh founded his own political party which did not win a single seat in the 2012 state election in Uttar Pradesh. Ahead of this year's national election, he joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which is headed by former union minister Ajit Singh. He contested the elections but lost.