Even as senior Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Monday slammed the Congress for fielding Raj Babbar against Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law, Dimple Yadav, in the Firozabad Lok Sabha bypolls, party MP from Rampur and actress Jaya Prada said Raj Babbar should withdraw from the contest “honourably” as people were aware that he was brought up politically by SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

“Out of respect, we did not field candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli (against Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and party chief Sonia Gandhi), but they have fielded a candidate against Mulayam Singh’s daughter-in-law,” Singh said here. Dimple, who is making her debut in the electoral politics, is pitched against Babbar from Firozabad.

To a question on Rahul campaigning in Firozabad in favour of Babbar, the general secretary said, “I have no bitterness about the campaign.”

He said “like the Indian Police Service, he and Rahul were members of the Indian political service and were both working for their respective parties”.

Singh also welcomed the decision of Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal to join hands with the SP in Firozabad and said the move would help the two parties in the long run. “The friendship will continue beyond the bypoll,” he added.

He slammed Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh for fielding Babbar in Firozabad and said the seat-sharing talks between the two parties ended as the Congress wanted to field its candidates on the SP’s sitting seats. “The Firozabad seat was vacated by Akhilesh (Dimple’s husband)... Digvijay is a senior leader and should refrain from taking such steps,” he said.

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