Amar Singh attends UP Lokayukta's swearing-in, fuels speculation of his return to Mulayam's party

Lucknow: The surprise presence of expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh at the swearing-in of Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta on Sunday fuelled speculation of his early return to the party.

"I am present in SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's heart. It is much more than my presence in the party," Singh, SP's once powerful general secretary, said after the swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhawan.

"A political party may be guided by 'swarth (vested interest)', but not the heart, which is pure and selfless. If one resides in someone's heart, it is immaterial whether one is in the party or not," Singh said.

His attendance at the event came days after the SP chief had said, "Amar Singh may not be the formal member of the party, Amar Singh was in my heart, he is my heart and he will remain there."

Yadav said he always had "very close ties" with Singh and "there is no change in those relations and they will remain for all my life", dropping ample hints of his early comeback in the party fold.

Though Mulayam is said to be backing Singh's return to the party, a few senior leaders, particularly SP's Muslim face Azam Khan, are wary.

Amar Singh was present at the birthday function of the SP chief in Saifai on November 22, last year.

In January 2010, Samajwadi Party parliamentary board had expelled Singh from the party, terming him as "intruder".

On his expulsion, Singh had said he was hurt when he was thrown out of the party fold on his birthday which falls on January 27. "But I don't carry any baggage. Mulayam Singh has always been an elder brother to me and Akhilesh is like my son," he had said.

Singh had a long meeting with the chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on January 26, fuelling speculation in political circles over his return to the party fold.