After Akhilesh Yadav claims Samajwadi Party MLAs' support, Amar Singh says signatures forged

NEW DELHI: A day after the Samajwadi Party's (SP) Akhilesh Yadav faction told the Election Commission (EC) it has signatures of support from a majority of SP lawmakers, Amar Singh, who's part of the opposing Mulayam faction, claimed the signatures were forged.

"The signatures of support are forged and hence their authenticity is doubtful," said Amar Singh, who's said to be the cause of the rift in the Yadav family.

He further said that proving support isn't a pre-condition to appropriating the party symbol, a 'cycle', in case of a split.

"The numbers of MLAs supporting you matters when a government has to be formed, not for (laying claim to the) party symbol," Singh was quoted as saying by ANI

Yesterday, after meeting EC officials, Ramgopal Yadav - who's on Akhilesh's side - said his faction is at an advantage because they submitted relevant documents sooner than the deadline of January 9.

"We (Akhilesh faction) have submitted all relevant documents, brought seven cartons with more than 1.5 lakh pages to the election commissioner office," Ramgopal said.

"We have most of the MLAs on our side and the SP led by Akhilesh Yadav is the real Samajwadi Party. Hence we have the right over the 'Cycle' symbol."

Meanwhile, ANI reports that the name plates of Mulayam's and his brother Shivpal's, have been reinstalled at the party headquarters in Lucknow and that the office has since been locked.

On New Year's Eve, supporters of Akhilesh removed Shivpal's nameplate from outside office, despite heavy police presence.

Earlier today, Mulayam and Amar Singh reached Delhi, a day before their scheduled meeting EC officials to stake their claim to the party symbol. They are supposed to meet EC officials at 12.45 pm tomorrow.