Kalyan to join BJP? Party not ready to roll out red carpet

Tripathi said the bitter memories left behind by Kalyan Singh are too recent to be forgotten or swept under the carpet. “Remember the way he threatened the party to get the ticket for the lone Rajya Sabha seat in November 2008 for Kusum Rai. To keep him in good humour,the party acquiesced,but what did Kalyan Singh do?” he asked. A few weeks later,he left the BJP and joined hands with the Samajwadi Party to strengthen secularism and defeat communal forces,he said.

The former BJP president said that “instead of talking of joining the BJP,Kalyan Singh should knock at the door of the Congress — he helped the Congress by alienating the Muslims from the Samajwadi Party”.

Kalyan Singh had left the BJP twice. First,he left the party in December 1999,but returned in January,2004 before the Lok Sabha elections after tendering a profuse apology to the then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. In January this year,he resigned for the second time,saying he had been humiliated by the BJP in the selection of candidates for the 2007 Assembly elections.

Kalraj Mishra,MP and once considered to be the obvious successor of Kalyan Singh for the chief minister’s seat,said: “His re-joining the party in 2004 had generated a lot of hope and confidence among the rank and file,but he again left on his own in 2009. He has lost credibility — if he wishes to join the BJP he will have to earn the confidence of the party.”

Vinay Katiyar,MP and former state BJP president who once led the rabble rouser brigade of the BJP,said that Kalyan Singh should visit Ayodhya immediately and make a penance before talking of joining the BJP.

Most BJP leaders say Kalyan Singh’s home coming,even if it comes through,will be of little use for the revival of the party in Uttar Pradesh. According to them,he is seeking re-entry into the BJP as a political platform for his son Rajvir Singh.

Rajvir is the former BJP legislator from Dibai in Bulandshahar,while his wife Premlata Devi,won the 2007 Assembly elections on BJP ticket from Atrauli Assembly seat in Aligarh. Kalyan Singh had won from this seat from 1967 to 2002 Assembly elections,with sole exception of a loss to the Congress in 1980.

“The Kalyan Singh issue has cropped up at a time when the party is in the middle of organisational election and a new national president is likely to take over by the end of the next month. So,his re-entry in the BJP will be decided by the new leadership,” said a BJP leader.

Thus spoke Kalyan Singh
* I was humiliated and insulted and have quit the BJP for life. I was feeling suffocated. It was my political blunder to have rejoined the party in 2004

Announcing his resignation from the BJP on January 20
* I will leave no stone unturned to defeat the BJP. I will work for the complete destruction of the BJP and stop all possibilities of the formation of a BJP-led NDA government at the Centre

On May 2
* I apologised for the Babri demolition in 1992. I want to make it clear that I had taken moral responsibility for demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6,1992 and had resigned from the post of chief ministership. While Muslims have a right to be proud of Islam,Hindus have equal right to be proud of Hindutva. It is unfortunate that some people are creating fissures among these two faiths

On February 5