Samajwadi Party leaders Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh after a Parliamentary Board meeting at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Sunday. — Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Gargi Parsai
 
NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh, accompanied by party general secretary Amar Singh, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Sunday evening.

The two leaders are understood to have offered “constructive support’’ to the United Progressive Alliance. The party has won 23 seats in Uttar Pradesh and has emerged as the third largest party.

Both leaders avoided the media after their nearly 30-minute long stay inside the Prime Minister’s residence at 7 Race Course Road.

They later drove to Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad’s house for a meeting of the Fourth Front comprising the SP, the RJD and the Lok Jan Shakti Party.

The Front has won 27 seats with the LJP drawing a blank.

Emerging from the meeting, Mr. Amar Singh said “we are for secular politics. We are not for power.”

Earlier, after a meeting of the party’s Parliamentary Board here, Amar Singh told journalists: “We are happy that secular forces have won. We [with 23 MPs] are ready to extend constructive support to the government. What kind of support they want would depend on the Prime Minister. We are at the giving end.’’

Party president Mulayam Singh chaired the two-hour-long meeting.

The board authorised Mr. Mulayam Singh to take a decision on giving support to the UPA government and the party chief in turn authorised Mr. Amar Singh to talk to the Congress.

“We talked to Dr. Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and congratulated them on the outcome of the elections. I have spoken to senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee and will meet him again,’’ Mr. Amar Singh said.

Asked if the SP would be a part of the government, he said: “It is the prerogative of the Prime Minister to take us in the Cabinet or in the government. We are the third largest party today.’’

To a question on his relationship with Congress general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh Digvijay Singh, whom he had blamed for breaking the pre-poll alliance with them in the State, he said past acrimony should not be the basis for the future. “I am ready to talk to Mr. Digvijay Singh.’’

Downplaying the resignation of party general secretary Azam Khan from his post and from the parliamentary board, Mr. Singh said there was no misunderstanding between him and Mr. Khan.

“He is like my elder brother. I can’t ignore his contribution to the party. There is no misunderstanding with him,’’ he said. He, however, added that Mr. Khan should have expressed his displeasure over any issue in the party’s parliamentary board and not gone public.

On the observation of some Congress leaders that the party would prefer the support of smaller parties for government formation than the SP, Mr. Amar Singh said he would not comment on “individuals.’’