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Kalyan Singh gives up charge of BJP's UP affairs

Special Correspondent

Owns moral responsibility for party's poor show in polls

LUCKNOW: Bharatiya Janata Party vice president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh on Tuesday stepped down as incharge of his party's U.P. affairs, owning moral responsibility for the party's dismal performance in the Assembly elections.

Mr. Singh was projected as the BJP's chief ministerial candidate in the recent elections.

In his resignation letter sent to the BJP president, Rajnath Singh, Mr. Singh called for introspection as to what went wrong in the elections. The saffron party finished a poor third behind the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party.

The former Chief Minister suggested that with the Lok Sabha elections due in 2009, the district and city units of the party should be revamped and emphasis should be placed on infusing new blood.

The BJP could manage only 49 seats on its own with two seats won by its ally, Janata Dal (United). In the 2002 Assembly elections the BJP had won 88 seats, but its tally subsequently came down to 67 following defections to the Samajwadi Party. In the 2002 Assembly polls, Mr. Singh was not in the BJP having left the saffron party in 2000 following differences with the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He floated the Rashtriya Kranti Party and won three seats in the 2002 polls.

Opposed alliance

Later, he aligned with the former Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh, when the latter became Chief Minister in August 2003. His son, Rajveer Singh and vice president of the BJP Mahila Morcha, Kusum Rai, were inducted as Cabinet Ministers.

Mr. Singh, however, returned to the BJP just before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections and was elected Member of Parliament from Bulandshahr in Western Uttar Pradesh.

In the recently concluded State Assembly elections, the BJP contested the polls under his leadership. Before the countdown to the elections, Mr. Singh had strongly opposed alliance with any political party. He preferred to go it alone. He maintained his opposition when talks of alliance with the JD (U) and the Apna Dal were in its final stages.

Mr. Singh, later, relented following persuasion by the BJP president and vice president, M. Venkaiah Naidu.

While the JD (U) won two seats, the Apna Dal drew a blank. The AD president, Soney Lal Patel, who lost from Kolasla in Varanasi district was among the leaders who were vanquished by their opponents.

Ironically, Mr. Singh's son lost from Dibai but his daughter -in-law, Premlata won from Atrauli, which was once represented by the BJP vice- president.

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Kalyan Singh gives up charge of BJP's UP affairs

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