Our Correspondent /
Giving another shock to son and the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Party Mulayam Singh Yadav today appointed Amar Singh as national general secretary of the party.
Amar Singh was a major bone of contention as Akhilesh Yadav took on his uncle and Mulayam’s favourite younger brother Shivpal Yadav in a public free-for-all.
The Samajwadi Party chief made the big appointment in a hand-written note on his letterhead, putting Amar Singh at par with his cousin Ram Gopal Yadav, the uncle who backed Akhilesh in a big feud in the party’s first family last week.
“You have been appointed General Secretary of Samajwadi Party. I hope in the coming days you will strengthen the party in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections,” Mulayam said in a handwritten letter to Singh.
The brief letter in Hindi, signed by Mulayam on his Lok Sabha letterhead, was sent to media from state SP chief Shivpal Yadav’s official e-mail address.
Once the public face of the party, Singh was seen as Mulayam’s closest aide when he had the ear of “Netaji”.
As national general secretary, Amar Singh, who was expelled from the party for six years and returned only recently, will play a prominent role for the Samajwadi Party in crucial assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh early next year.
In 2010 Amar singh and Jaya Prada, his associate, were expelled from the Samajwadi Party in February 2010.
Singh then formed his own political party, the Rashtriya Lok Manch — a party that contested the assembly election in 2012. The party could not win even one seat.
It is seen as the latest signal from father to son on who calls the shots.
Akhilesh last week divested Shivpal Yadav of key ministries in his cabinet and blamed “outsiders” for causing trouble in the family, in a reference to Amar Singh. Mr Singh is seen as backing Shivpal Yadav, though he has asserted that Akhilesh Yadav is “like my son”.