Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday exuded confidence that party leader Azam Khan would soon join him publicly. He also stated that he has accepted most of the “suggestions” of Mr Khan and hinted that he could be given the role of Leader of the Opposition in the UP Assembly, while a senior party leader indicated that Mr Khan could also be made the vice-president of the party.
Mr Yadav told reporters that a delegation of Mr Khan’s Masharwat party had met him on Sunday where final shape for the entry of Mr Khan was arrived at. Mr Khan was earlier expelled after his no-holds-barred showdown with another expelled leader Amar Singh during the last Lok Sabha elections.
A visibly happy Mr Yadav went on to say that for the first time he is in a position to state that he would contest the next UP Assembly elections with the objective to capture power. “I will be riding a parivartan rath soon. I am telling you that this time I will be contesting the polls with an objective to capture power,” Mr Yadav told reporters.
Mr Khan in his letter to the SP chief said the past episodes should be forgotten as a nightmare and they should strive hard for a better tomorrow. The SP chief told reporters that Mr Khan’s representatives had handed over seven “suggestions”. “I have agreed to four of them, while I will sit with Mr Khan to sort out the rest of the suggestions,” Mr Yadav said, while adding that the suggestions relate to Muslims, farmers and the Samajwadi movement. The SP chief said that the Sachchar Committee and Rangnath Commission reports need to be implemented.