Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) former General Secretary, Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh died in Singapore where he was undergoing treatment for kidney related ailments. Amar Singh, once trusted confidante of Mulayam Singh Yadav, who counted film stars and business barons as friends and effortlessly straddled political boundaries,

He had undergone kidney transplantation in 2011. Even as India is pre-occupied with the threat of looming Covid- 19 pandemic, Amar Singh managed to intrude into political charter with simple words “Tiger Zinda Hai”. It was his way of announcing that reports of his death were exaggerated. Singh did not live long after that March tweet from a Singapore hospital but it captured the man.

He was a man of words, but also garrulous. He was aware of his importance and preferred to be pompous. From the humble beginning as punter of Kolkata Congress leaders in 1970s to Thakur Amar Singh of 1990s, who was sought after by political functionaries and corporate houses and celebrities in distress, his metamorphosis is a tail that has long peppered that gossip sessions of Delhi and Mumbai evenings.

Singh shot into national prominence virtually overnight when he emerged as the Man Friday of then Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in late 90s. Having defeated Vajpayee’s BJP and formed UPA, Congress was in no mood to forgive and forget Mulayam who had snubbed Sonia Gandhi in 1999 when the BJP Government fell by one vote.