Was unhappy over denial of LS ticket to his son.
Kalyan Singh’s decision to quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may be the first setback for the party in Uttar Pradesh before the coming general elections. But the party top brass is feeling relieved that it will no longer have to put up with a ‘sulking’ leader.
Singh, who belongs to and is believed to command the votes of the Lodhs, a backward community in Uttar Pradesh, resigned from all his positions (including that of vice-president) after feeling “humiliated and insulted” in the party which he had rejoined five years back.
The BJP quickly accepted Singh’s resignation and blamed him for having “joined the ideological rivals”.
Singh had met Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh on Sunday. Sources said Kalyan Singh’s son Rajveer Singh, a former legislator, may soon join the Samajwadi Party and contest from Bulandshahr.
BJP leaders admitted that Singh had been sulking for a long time and had stopped attending the party’s key meetings six months back. Recently, he had opposed the party decision to nominate Ashok Pradhan, instead of Singh’s son, as the BJP candidate for the Bulandshahr Lok Sabha constituency.
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He was also opposed to the BJP seeking an electoral alliance with the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in western UP.
A senior BJP leader said that “Kalyan Singh had developed a negative attitude after the BJP only managed to win 10 seats in the 2007 Assembly elections”.
However, according to sources, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley had tried to make last-ditch efforts to stop Singh from leaving the party during a three-hour meeting with him on Saturday.
The party had also asked Kusum Rai, a close aide of Singh who was given a Rajya Sabha seat to placate him, to persuade Singh against quitting the party.
The 76-year-old leader, who was the face of Hindutva during the peak of Ayodhaya movement, had quit the BJP in December 2006 and floated his own regional outfit. However, he rejoined the party in February 2004.