Former SP leader and now president of Rashtriya Lok Manch, Amar Singh will hold a rally in Etawah — the bastion of his bête noire Mulayam Singh Yadav — on July 31 to display his strength. Thereafter, from October 2, Mr Singh will embark on a yatra from Ghaziabad to Ghazipur and will not return home until the UP elections are over.
Talking to reporters here on Thursday, Mr Singh said that his party had adopted the go-alone policy since none of the other political leaders had supported his campaign for creation of Purvanchal state.
He said that his party would pursue farmers’ issues, issues related to 30 per cent reservation for youth, compensation for encephalitis victims in eastern UP, 10 per cent reservation to Muslims on basis of the recommendations of Sachchar and Ranganath Misra reports and free power to farmers.
While Mr Singh avoided any criticism of the Congress, he mounted a blistering attack on Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and UP chief minister Mayawati.
Terming the two leaders as two sides of the same coin, he said that both the leaders may not see eye-to-eye on several issues but agreed on everything when it came to guarding the interests of two business groups.
“These two leaders share common gangsters — SP goondas become BSP goondas and vice versa — and both the leaders never cancel projects related to these two business groups which proves that monetary interests reign over political interests,” he said.
Mr Singh said that superstar Amitabh Bachchan had resurrected the sales of a chocolate brand after some chocolate bars were found to have maggots in them by advertising for the brand. Similarly, he worked as a catalyst for the polio drops campaign when he started working as their brand ambassador. “However, he could not save the Samajwadi Party with his ‘UP mein jurm hai kam’ campaign which proves that people cannot be fooled,” he pointed out.
He also quashed rumours about his possible return to the Samajwadi party and said that he would prefer to wash utensils instead of returning to the party.