Former SP leader, Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh passes away at 64

New Delhi, Aug 1
Former Samajwadi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh passed away after a prolonged illness on Saturday, according to reports. He was 64.
He had been undergoing treatment at a hospital in Singapore for several months.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh expressed his condolences to the family of Amar Singh and said the former Rajya Sabha MP had friends across the parties during his active years in politics.
Singh, a one-time loyalist of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, was expelled for the second time from the party in 2017.
During his first stint of 14 years from 1996 to 2010, Amar Singh networked extensively for the party and was frequently seen with celebrities from Anil Ambani to Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, from Sanjay Dutt to Subrata Roy. One rival leader used the expression “Corporate Thakur” to describe the man who brought in professionals to man the SP office in Delhi. When he was sidelined, one celebrity that did stand by him was Jaya Prada, expelled along with him.
Eventually, he floated his own Rashtriya Lok Manch in 2011 and fielded over 300 candidates in the 2012 UP polls but won none. He briefly joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal and contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Fatehpur Sikri, and lost.
Six years after his expulsion, the SP mended fences and nominated him to the Rajya Sabha in May 2016.
Earlier this year, diagnosed with a kidney ailment and “fighting a battle of life and death”, the former Rajya Sabha MP has apologised to actor Amitabh Bachchan for his much-publicised fallout with the actor and his family. Singh had said he regrets his “overreaction against Amit ji and family”. The Indian Express