Shaken over continued Muslims’ hostility towards the party, the Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday apologised to the Muslim community for alliance with former BJP leader Kalyan Singh during 2009 Lok Sabha election. Yadav in a signed statement issued in Lucknow on Thursday said that in order to defeat communal forces he had taken support of some “wrong elements”, which hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community.
“ I accept my mistake”, Yadav said.
The move, in political circle, is being seen as a desperate attempt by Yadav to win over the community, which had been feeling disenchanted with the Samajwadi Party. The party’s Muslim dilemma further worsened after it was pushed to fourth place in recent assembly by-election in Dumariaganj.
While, Yadav believed that alliance would bring formidable backward class votes to the party, enraged Muslim community moved away from once nicked named “Maulana Mulayam”.
Reiterating his commitment to secularism and fight against communal forces, Yadav said “I assure the Muslim community that I will keep their interest supreme and protect for their honour with full loyalty”.
