Uttar Pradesh SP president Akhilesh Yadav, speaking to this newspaper, on Wednesday said that the decision to renominate Ms Jaya Bachchan was taken following “constructive work done by her for the party and her non-partisan with regard to Amar Singh’s expulsion”.
As Mr Amar Singh seethed, Mr Yadav said: “Mrs Bachchan always tried to sort out differences between the SP and uncle Singh. She tried to resolve the problems between us and uncle.”
Mr Yadav claimed that “Ms Bachchan’s family has a name in the country and commands respect all over the world.”
Ignoring her remarks that she “missed the absence” of Mr Singh from the SP, Mr Yadav went on to say that Ms Bachchan had been “emotionally and politically with the party in recent times”.
Though SP spokesman Mohan Singh was tipped to be the frontrunner for the Rajya Sabha nomination, he backed off during the party’s national executive meeting in Kolkata after he came to know that Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav had made up his mind in favour of Ms Bachchan and intense lobbying for the second slot among Mr Masood, Mr Ramji Lal Suman and Mr Brij Bhushan Tiwari. Mr Masood was the vice-presidential candidate for UNPA in 2007. He was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1977 on a Janata Party ticket.