By IANS,
New Delhi : Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav Monday denied having met Bharatiya Janata Party vice president Kalyan Singh after reports of a meeting and speculation of the BJP leader’s move to quit the party.
“I challenge what is being reported by the media and if you (media) can prove this, I will stop talking to the media,” Yadav said while talking to mediapersons at his party’s New Delhi office.
Media reports said Yadav along with his party general secretary Amar Singh held a secret meeting with Kalyan Singh in New Delhi Sunday.
“We had no secret meeting either at my house or at (Kalyan Singh’s son) Rajvir Singh’s, as is being reported,” Yadav said.
Rajvir Singh, a minister in the former Uttar Pradesh government headed by Yadav, has returned to the BJP fold.
Samajwadi Party sources Sunday said Kalyan Singh is upset with his party on two counts – Rajvir Singh was not given the BJP ticket from a constituency of his choice and that the party fielded a candidate who, he claims, worked for his son’s defeat in the 2007 assembly elections.
They said Rajvir Singh was offered a seat from Aligarh district but this was not acceptable to Kalyan Singh.
The party has fielded Ashok Pradhan from Bulandshahr constituency, which Kalyan Singh represents. He has to move to another constituency since the seat has now been reserved for Scheduled Castes candidates.
Asked if he was discussing any alliance with the disgruntled BJP leader, Yadav said: “When we have not even met, where is the question of an alliance? We are not thinking of any type of alliance.”
Kalyan Singh has so far not commented on the reports.