The Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday has cancelled the suspension of Ram Gopal Yadav and has reinstated him as party’s General Secretary and spokesperson and SP’s Rajya Sabha leader months ahead of Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. However, responding to reinstatement of ousted Ramgopal, Amar Singh said this is their party, and thus, they can expel or reinstate anybody anytime at their will.
Ram Gopal Yadav, Mulayam Singh’s cousin, is the leader of the Samajwadi Party in the Rajya Sabha – it is the third largest group in the house after the Congress and BJP – and is widely seen as the party’s face in Delhi. Mulayam Singh’s change of heart on Ram Gopal signals a blow for Shivpal Yadav, who had put out the press statement announcing the sacking.
Ram Gopal was expelled last month after he wrote an open letter to the party chief alleging that some vested interests were trying to mislead the leadership and create a rift within the SP. After reinstated, Ramgopal said, “Netaji (Mulayam) could have never sacked me on his own. He was misinformed.”
“I have always been part of the Samajwadi Party. I will always be in the Samajwadi Party. Now that I am officially back, I thank Netaji (Mulayam),” Ram Gopal Yadav said.
He added saying, “It is the duty of elders to forgive the mistakes of the one’s younger to them”.
However, reacting on the reinstating of Ram Gopal, Amar Singh said, “Ram Gopal had given a statement that he got Amar Singh expelled from the party, and could do it now too. I am ready to be expelled. I was expelled once and now I am ready to be expelled again. I will be waiting for my expulsion for the second time.”
He further said: “This is for you to analyse. Whether I am in politics or not; I’m with this party or any other party; but I can neither leave nor forget Mulayam Singh. I cannot deprive myself of his affection, whether he is in power or not.”
Meanwhile, the BJP spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh took a jibe at Samajwadi Party over the decision. “The PariWar and the ‘nautanki’ doesn’t seem to end. The people of UP are frustrated with this ‘nautanki’. Now, SP has become a party full of hatred and therefore it has become a laughing stock,” he said.
