The friendship between the two leaders defied the casteist politics of UP and they had gone to the May general elections together vowing never to part ways.
However on Saturday a visibly upset Yadav reacted sharply to questions regarding the alienation of Muslims from the SP following his alliance with Kalyan Singh and shot back saying, “Kalyan Singh is not a member of SP”.
“I want to make it clear that Kalyan Singh was never in the SP nor will he ever be admitted in the party”, Yadav said facing a volley of queries on this count.
On whether Kalyan would be allowed to join SP, Yadav retorted, “nahin lenge bhai” (never).
Asked to explain Kalyan’s presence on the dais during the party’s national convention in Agra in August this year, Yadav said that an invitation had been sent to him by mistake.
On whether his party was contemplating withdrawal of support to the UPA, Yadav admitted that his party had suffered owing to its friendship with Congress but made it clear that any decision could be taken at the appropriate time.
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