No rift in SP, we are all 'sewak' of Akhilesh: Amar Singh

Mirzapur (UP), Oct 10: Denying any rift in the Samajwadi Party (SP), senior leader Amar Singh today said all in the party were 'sewak' of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

"There is no rift in the party. We are all sewak of Akhilesh as the work of an organisation is 'seva' (service). Our chief ministerial face (for the 2017 state Assembly polls) is Akhilesh," he told reporters here.

The SP national general secretary reiterated that Mulayam Singh Yadav was the one who "made the party" and was its head. "Whatever he (Mulayam) says, will be followed in the party," he added. Singh claimed that Mayawati's BSP had "thrice" joined hands with the BJP but the SP had never done it and will "never do so".

He congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the army's surgical strikes in PoK and said, "The Prime Minister has taken all the parties into confidence in this matter and has also instructed his partymen not to pat their backs over it."

Singh described Modi's visit to Pakistan as "part of diplomacy" and warned the Congress and the secularists about their "choice of words" on the issue as otherwise, it could "help the BJP". Earlier in the day, the SP leader, along with actress Jaya Prada, paid obeisance at the Vindhyavasini temple here on the last day of 'navratra'.

PTI