Ranged against some senior leaders in a bitter intra-party turf war, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh is learnt to have shot off a letter to party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav asking him to relieve him of his political responsibilities even as a beleaguered party leadership today suspended an MLC who had made critical comments against the high-profile general secretary.

The voices against Singh in the party have only become shriller after the SP’s crushing defeat in the bypolls for the Firozabad Lok Sabha seat and 11 Assembly constituencies in which the party drew a blank.

Singh, who could not come from Delhi to attend a meeting today at Mulayam’s native place of Sefai in Etawah due to bad weather, is said to be upset with the renewed efforts to bring back some senior Samajwadi leaders who have since left the party. The meeting, which was supposed to discuss the issues raised by Singh in his letter, was to be attended by senior leaders, including Amar Singh, Ram Gopal Yadav, Shivpal Singh and Akhilesh Yadav.

SP sources said Singh is upset following some critical comments made by a few SP leaders during the campaign. Also, after the poll debacle, particularly in its pocket boroughs of Etawah and Bharthana, the SP leadership is under pressure from a section of the party to bring back Mohammed Azam Khan and rope in some tall Brahmin leader. The SP general secretary is vehemently opposed to the move.

After his return from Singapore following a kidney transplant, Amar Singh had been voicing his displeasure with the party leadership, even accusing the SP chief of ignoring him. SP sources say his latest move is an attempt to block the return of estranged “Samajwadis”.

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