Kalyan has joined jehad against BJP: Amar

After Kalyan Singh left the BJP,he joined the jehad for the total annihilation of BJP. His jehad against the BJP and the pledge of the minorities to wipe out BJP are one and the same. His tirade against the BJP and our fight against the BJP is the common link, Amar Singh told reporters.

The strong defence is being seen as an attempt by the party ahead of the general elections to keep its main Muslim vote bank on its side in the face of four party MPs from the community openly protesting the pact with Kalyan Singh,a former chief minister considered one of the main players in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition.

The SP leader also tried to project a new image of the former BJP leader. Kalyan Singhs role at the time of the demolition of Babri Masjid is different from his current role in UP politics today, he said adding,We have to look at the present and not the past of a person.

To defeat the BJP and communalism,we are ready to accept any thing in the state, Amar Singh added. But he ducked a question on whether the SP could consider entering into a pact with BJP leader LK Advani,if he claimed to fight communalism.

Although senior Muslim leaders in the party are livid and ally Congress worried,he said that Kalyan Singh was a widely acceptable leader.

I would like to remind that it was Congress leaders Pramod Tiwari and Jagdambika Pal along with Ajit Singh and Mulayam Singh that Kalyan played a pivotal role to oust Mayawati from power last time in 2003, he said. This only indicated Kalyans wider acceptability despite his role in Babri demolition.

He also pointed out how none of the minority leaders in the SP had protested against teaming up with Kalyan Singh to oust Mayawati last time.