Amar Singh Says Samajwadi Party is 'Namazwadi Party', Accuses Akhilesh of Patronising Azam

Lucknow: Expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Tuesday accused SP stalwart Azam Khan of threatening to throw acid on the former's daughter and wife. Singh also dismissed the SP as “namazwadi party", alleging that the party aims at Muslim appeasement.

Amar Singh alleged that Khan in one of his recent interviews had abused his wife and daughters and even threatened them with rape and acid attack.

Training his guns on Akhilesh Yadav, Amar Singh accused him of patronising communalists and fundamentalists like "rogue man" Azam Khan.

Replying to allegations made by Amar Singh, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav said, "This is all tactics to divert attention of the public. Only BJP has that power to divert people's attention."

Singh bemoaned the fact that party patriarch Mulayam Singh did not pull up Azam Khan even once.

“If Mulayam Singh Yadav had condemned Azam Khan even once, I won’t be calling it namazwadi party," said Amar Singh.

Calling the Samajwadi Party as a namazwadi party, Amar Singh left no doubt he wants to drag the SP back into the old political narrative of it being a party of Yadav and the Muslims. A political notion which the party has tried to fight hard, especially under the leadership of young Akhilesh Yadav.

Is the back to back sequences of meeting with BJP leaders, including UP CM Yogi Adityanath, his name being mentioned by Prime Minister and Singh being suddenly active in UP's political space just a co incidence or a part of larger political game plan?

Replying to a question posed by News18, Amar Singh denied any political game plan. He said, "I have been deeply hurt by Azam's threat to my wife and daughters. I am here to challenge him."

Amar Singh claimed that he had arranged a meeting of Shivpal Yadav, who says he has been waiting for more than a year now to be assigned some responsibility by the party, with BJP top leadership.

“I had arranged for a meeting of Shivpal Yadav with top BJP leadership, but Shivpal didn’t agree. I will still respect him anyhow and I will myself continue to campaign for BJP for 2019 elections," said Amar Singh.

At the time when SP-BSP alliance seems to be a formidable challenge, every bit of a possible dent in it will be a welcome move for the saffron party. 'Amar Vani' therefore will be music to its ears in run up to 2019 polls.