By IANS,
New Delhi : Apparently trying to warm up to either the Congress or the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), rebel Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh Saturday praised Mayawati and Sonia Gandhi, saying the two had proved their political mettle against all odds.
“Both (Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and BSP boss Mayawati) are political personalities in their own right. One lady has proved herself in Uttar Pradesh against all odds, and one lady has proved herself in India against all adversity,” Amar Singh told CNN-IBN news channel in an interview.
Amar Singh, who resigned from all party posts, also slammed his former mentor and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for “ill-treating” Mayawati, once his arch-rival, in 1995.
“I can sense her pain of the guest house episode. Mayawati was supporting Mulayam Singhji and as long as she was supporting, all her wishes were fulfilled. But when she decided to withdraw support and Mulayam Singh lost power, Mulayam Singh and the Yadav clan surrounded her in the guest house and ill treated her,” he said.
He was referring to a 1995 incident when Mayawati announced withdrawal of her party’s support to the Mulayam Singh government, leading to its collapse. Samajwadi Party supporters then attacked the state guest house at Meera Bai Marg where Mayawati was staying. BSP legislators were beaten up and some kidnapped. Mayawati locked herself in her room.
Amar Singh said he was now being “treated the same way”.
“For 14 years, as long as I was servile, obedient and blindfolded and endorsed everything that was being done in the party and endorsing everything that was done by my leader, I was all right.”
He said: “I am not a man without alternative”.
The Samajwadi Party, he said, thought “Amar Singh has fiercely opposed the Congress, so the party won’t accept me”.
They also thought that “he (Amar Singh) has fought with L.K. Advani so the Bharatiya Janata Party will not take him and in the recent past he has fought with Mayawati and so Maya will not take him”.
“Ghar ka kutta jayega kahan? ghum phir ke aayega yahan (where can a domestic dog go. He will have to return),” he said about how the Samajwadi Party treated him.
Asked if he was closer to Mayawati now, Amar Singh said: “I have not met her.”