Have not applied for re-entry to SP: Amar Singh

New Delhi: Former SP leader Amar Singh has said that he has not applied for "entry" to the party headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav and his meetings with the SP supreme were for personal reasons and not political.

"There is no application on my behalf pending before the Samajwadi Party Parliamentary Board for re-entry," Amar Singh told India TV on 'Aaj ki Baat' show according to a press release issued by the channel. He said he had gone to Saifai at the invitation of Mulayam and "no political angle should be seen into this visit".

"I had gone to Saifai (Mulayam Singh's hometown) to attend a social programme and it is wrong to say that I forcibly sat near Mulayam Singh ji in his car. There were speeches by Ramgopal ji (party General Secretary) and myself, and people can also say that I grabbed the mike. There is no need to rake up such controversies," he added.

Singh said Mulayam Singh is the President of the Samajwadi Party and it was his birthday. "I have good relations with him, he invited me and I went there. You can check it out with Mulayam Singh ji," he said, adding that he never gate crashed.  

Singh's clarifications come in wake of remarks by his rival Azam Khan on Sunday. Khan said, "A lot of waste comes where there is a storm" and had added that "even the driver and gunmen sit with Mulayam Singh in his car".

Reacting to Khan's comments, Singh said, "Some people have remarked about garbage coming in a storm. Actually one finds diamonds inside a mine and it is the jeweller who can identify a diamond. A sweeper is one who brushes off the garbage, including the diamond, because a 'jamadaar' can only see garbage. He cannot identify a diamond."

Reacting to Khan's charge that he was trying to wangle a Rajya Sabha nomination from Samajwadi Party, Singh said, "I was nominated and elected thrice to Rajya Sabha for a total of 18 years. I would rather want his (Khan's) son to be given the Rajya Sabha ticket, since he (Khan) is a minister and chancellor for life of Maulana Mihammas Ali Jauhar University, and his wife is in Rajya Sabha."

"I never sought a Rajya Sabha ticket, I can challenge, let Mulayam Singh ji say if I ever sought an RS ticket from him," he said, adding that Mulayam Singh sent him to Rajya Sabha thrice without an application or approval from Parliamentary Board of party.

"Those who are worried about my Rajya Sabha nomination should have Alprax tablet and have a sound sleep," Singh said.