New Delhi:
First, he accepted Amar Singh's resignation "with a heavy heart." Now, Mulayam Singh Yadav has officially okayed actor Sanjay Dutt's exit as General Secretary of the Samajwadi Party.
Yadav has also announced that Amar Singh will be replaced as the party's General Secretary by Mohan Singh. The replacement is seen as Mulayam's way of signaling that the party is moving on, and that it will back old-timers who have stood by the party and respected its rules. Mohan Singh enjoys much support in Eastern UP, and has been a Mulayam loyalist for several decades.
Amar Singh in his reaction to Mulayam Singh's latest announcement, said, "This is the party high command's decision, nobody has thrown this on me. I have given my resignation due to health reasons and for accepting that, I give thanks to Mulayam Singh."
Amar Singh and Yadav, who were once inseparable, ran into trouble last year. Before the general elections in May, Amar Singh was upset that other party leaders questioned the candidature of actor Jaya Prada from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. At that time, Singh felt Yadav did not back him as strongly as he should have.
Then, in November, Mulayam's daughter-in-law, Dimple, lost the by-election to the Firozabad seat. Mulayam's son, Akhilesh, had won the Parliamentary election from here but had chosen to represent Kannauj instead, since he had also been elected from there. Dimple was defeated by actor Raj Babbar for the Congress party. Amar Singh blamed the Firozabad loss on Mulayam's family's over-confidence. Akhilesh, meanwhile, blamed Amar Singh publicly for the loss.
Amar Singh finally resigned as General Secretary in January 2010. He has not ruled out joining another party, saying only that he would not like to desert Yadav in what he describes as "a time of crisis."
Amar Singh's loyalists within the party include Jaya Prada and Jaya Bachchan, who are both MPs. They have not yet indicated whether they will quit their posts.