Amar threatens to quit SP over Azam Khan issue

In an ultimatum to Mulayam Singh Yadav over the Azam Khan issue, SP leader Amar Singh has threatened to quit the party after the Lok Sabha polls, accusing the Muslim leader of making "intolerable utterances" against him.     

Singh said he would decide over continuing in the party after the end of the final phase of polls, referring to Yadav's statement that 'party mein rehna hai to Azam Khan ko khush rakhna hai' (If you want to remain in the party, you will have to keep Azam Khan happy).     

"Azam Khan is a favourite of Mulayam Singhji and in spite of his (Khan) intolerable utterances against me, I was being asked to keep silent," Singh said addressing a public meeting in Rampur, 250 km from Lucknow, on Thursday.

Taking exception to the "order" of Yadav that "if I have to stay in Samajwadi Party, I have to bear with Azam Khan," Singh said he had been told by the party chief, "You don't have to say anything, keep absolutely quiet.      

"But now I am disobeying this order publicly. And I am doing this because there is a limit to how much one can bear," the SP General Secretary said.