New Delhi, Jan 6 (IANS) Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Amar Singh Wednesday resigned as general secretary of the party as well as from its parliamentary board and as its spokesperson. Saying he was quitting the posts on health grounds, the high-profile politician denied any differences with party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
“I hardly had any rest. Doctors told me it is not good. At the age of 53, I am entitled to earned leave and need to give more priority to my family. After 20 years of hard work, they (the family) should get priority over Mulayamji and the party,” Amar Singh told NDTV.

Amar Singh had a kidney transplant at a Singapore hospital last summer.

Speaking from Dubai, the SP leader denied he had any differences with Yadav but insisted he would not withdraw his resignation.

But he would not mind shouldering another responsibility after division of labour in the party, he added.

“I am very grateful to him (Mulayam Yadav) for all the opportunities he has given to me. There are no differences. All my life, I will not speak a word against him.”

The SP leader, who is a Rajya Sabha MP and one of the most visible faces of the party, said he was not indispensable.

“Amar Singh or no Amar Singh, the party will do well. It has the capability,” he said, adding that the party had many other general secretaries.

He predicted that the party would do well in the forthcoming legislative council polls in Uttar Pradesh.

In the past, Amar Singh has appeared miffed with party colleagues who were not at his bedside in Singapore. “Only family members and Bachchans and Ambanis” were with him at that time, he had said.

Asked if he was upset with his party, he said Wednesday: “I am more practical now and more conscious of my responsibilities.”

The SP leader denied he was leaving active politics, though “I am overburdened. I am not able to cope with the kind of responsibilities (assigned)”.

Amar Singh said he had given his resignation to Mulayam Yadav thrice earlier, but it was rejected every time.

“I am not likely to oblige him now as my priorities are my daughters and my family,” he said, adding that he often worked 20 hours a day.

But he may agree to a “limited role”, he added.

Asked if he was looking at life outside SP, Amar Singh said he did not know what was in store for him.

Some cracks in the Amar Singh-Mulayam Singh Yadav ties did appear in recent months. First there was a difference of opinion on whether former film actress Jaya Prada should be the party nominee from Rampur in Utar Pradesh during last summer’s general elections.

That was papered over, but then came the defeat of Mulayam Yadav’s daughter-in-law at the Ferozabad bypolls, followed by Amar Singh’s remark that the major reason for the loss had been overconfidence on the part of the Yadavs.