Lucknow, May 18: Azam Khan, the Samajwadi Party's most prominent Muslim face, today dubbed Mulayam Singh Yadav's move to nominate Amar Singh to the Rajya Sabha an "unfortunate episode".

"In my view, it is an unfortunate episode," Azam, Uttar Pradesh minister and party general secretary, said. He was speaking in hometown Rampur last night, having left Lucknow apparently in a huff after Mulayam ignored his objections and announced Amar's nomination.

Azam, who had opposed Amar's return all along, took care to stress he was not challenging Mulayam's decision.

" Netaji party ke malik hain aur malik ke faisle ko chunauti dena mere adhikaar kshetra ke bahar hai (Netaji is the boss of the party and it is beyond my limits to challenge the boss's decision)," Azam said. Mulayam is referred to as Netaji by party leaders.

Asked about rumours that actress Jaya Prada - former Rampur MP and Amar's associate - may be back in the party once Amar formally returns, Azam paused for long and said: "I have to accept whatever is there in my fate."

Mulayam had nominated Azam's wife Tazeen Fatima and she was elected to the Rajya Sabha in November 2014, a move seen as a bid to humour the minister and blunt his resistance to Amar's return.

Today, another Samajwadi leader warned of an "upheaval" if Jaya was taken back.

"We need to remember Amar's likely return presages the re-induction of Jaya Prada. It will be a million-dollar question how Mulayam does this without causing an upheaval in the party."

Jaya had distanced herself from the party after Amar was suspended in February 2010 over allegations of anti-party activities.

Azam too had been suspended for six years just before 2009 Lok Sabha elections on charges of attacking Amar and Jaya and opposing Mulayam's friendship with Kalyan Singh, the BJP chief minister when the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992.

An angry Azam had then campaigned against Jaya in Rampur during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. She eventually won the election. Azam's suspension was withdrawn in November 2010.

It is no secret in the Samajwadi Party that Mulayam has long had Jaya's return on his mind. The patriarch has referred to her directly or indirectly several times in the past three years.

"I believe in women's empowerment. This was reason three women MPs from the party were elected in 2009. While two of them were from poor backgrounds, the third was a good-looking heroine. But she left with the leader (Amar) with whom she had come to the party," Mulayam had told in a public meeting in hometown Etawah in February 2014.

Amar on Amitabh

Amar today trained his guns on estranged friend Amitabh Bachchan, terming him "just an actor" embroiled in several alleged offences and whose name also figured in the Panama papers. "I will pray for Amitabh Bachchan. He said his name has been misused and he does not know what it is all about it. He is just an actor, an icon. God save him, his happiness," Amar said.