Tributes pour in as veteran politician Amar Singh dies aged 64

NEWDELHI/LUCKNOW: Almost everyone in New Delhi has an Amar Singh story, an indication of the kind of connections across party lines that he had in the country’s political capital and also a reflection of the 1990s and the 2000s, when coalitions ruled Delhi.

Singh is widely credited with having played a role in saving the Congress-led UPA government in 2008, by convincing Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party to support it.

The messages of condolence that followed his death on Saturday, in Singapore, at the age of 64, reflect this. “...Saddened by his demise. Condolences to his friends & family...” PM Modi tweeted. Singh was a Rajya Sabha MP at the time of his death, but he wasn’t well for much of the past decade — he underwent a kidney transplant in 2011. But in the decade before, his connections extended from Delhi to Mumbai, from political leaders to businessmen and Bollywood stars.