Close on the heels of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party demanding the Bharat Ratna for former prime minister A B Vajpayee and Kanshi Ram respectively, the Assam unit of the Samajwadi Party on Monday said the country's highest civilian award should be conferred on party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav.

SP state unit general secretary Ratul Kumar Choudhury, in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images], urged him to confer the award upon Yadav.

"He is the only secular leader of our country who has worked with Mahatma Gandhi [Images], Jai Prakash Narain and Ram Manohar Lohia, and he is the only leader who can save the nation and its people in the coming years," he said.