After maintaining a studied silence on the Amar Singh-Azam Khan spat that had brought the bitter infighting within Samajwadi Party to the fore, party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav decided to speak out finally.
And he trained his guns at his one-time closest lieutenant Azam Khan for declaring war against Mulayam's Man Friday and party national general secretary Amar Singh.
"Azam Khan was weakening the roots of our party, and what he has been doing clearly falls in the category of anti-party activity," Mulayam told an impressive rally he was addressing at Swar town, about 30 km from the Rampuir district headquarter Saturday afternoon.
Mulayam's open attack against Azam made it amply evident that he had eventually made his choice between his two close lieutenants. He also made no secret of his decision to side with Amar , who had on Friday issued yet another veiled threat to quit the party if Azam was allowed to go scot-free .
Embarking on the candidature of film actress-turned-politician Jaya Prada , that was at the root of the virtual street fight between Azam and Amar , the SP chief sought to point, "What Azam Khan seemed to overlook was the fact that Jaya Prada had been awarded the party ticket by me , and that too , after Azam Khan himself recommended her name."
He remarked, "I wonder if some kind of jealousy was at the root of the on going trouble, because fact remains that Azam was earlier all for Jaya for whom he had campaigned aggressively at the last election , when she won from here."
Much of Mulayam's 40-minute-long address was devoted to the bitter Amar-Azam feud. "I never speak so long at any election rally, but because I need to apprise people of many facts , I was compelled to make such a long speech", he observed at the conclusion of the rally.
Perhaps as apart of strategy, Amar Singh kept himself away from Rampur on a day when Mulayam was to address an important rally here. However, Jaya Prada went about harping on her beaten track - highlighting how pained she was on account of the tirade launched against her by Azam Khan.
"I have always regarded him as an elder brother", she said, while adding an emotional note, "I am really agonised to find that the hand to which I gave my bouquet, was throwing brickbats at me ."
Meanwhile , speculation was rife that the day was not far when Azam would make an exit from SP to join hands with the Congress . In fact, the growing proximity between Azam Khan and the Congress became visible for the first time when the influential Congress nominee Begum Noor Bano , with whome Azam could not see eye to eye until not very long ago, called on the latter's hospitalised supporters ,who were allegedly beaten up by Amar's men in a recent clash . Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh too talked about supporting building of Ali Jauhar University - Azam Khan's dream project.
