Amar meets Mulayam again, Akhilesh joins in

Lucknow: Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh Tuesday called on Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav at his residence here.

He was closeted with Yadav for more than an hour after which Mulayam Singh took Amar Singh to the party office at Vikramaditya Marg where Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav joined them.

Political observers see this as a logical and significant step towards Amar Singh's return to his political alma mater, four years after his exit from the party he served for 14 years.

Singh also met PWD minister Shivpal Singh Yadav earlier and is understood to have taken a feedback from him on the reported anger among some party leaders like Azam Khan, Naresh Agarwal and Ram Gopal Yadav over his likely return to the party fold.

Later, talking to reporters, Amar Singh said not much should be read into his meeting with the SP chief and said that despite his expulsion from the party four years ago he continued to enjoy "family relations" with Mulayam, Shivpal and Akhilesh.

Reacting to the meeting, party general secretary and Amar Singh's bete noire Ram Gopal Yadav, who is also the cousin of Mulayam, refused to give weightage to Amar Singh and said: "Why so much talk about Amar Singh? Is he Barack Obama?"

Amar and Mulayam had shared a stage at Lucknow earlier this month, sending the rumour mills working overtime on the possible return of Singh into the party. Both sides have so far neither denied the patch up efforts nor acknowledged them.