The BJP's prodigal son

Kalyan Singh's days in the wilderness could be over

The BJP has many leaders who are wrestlers, teachers and Lodhs. Dara Singh, recently nominated to the Rajya Sabha, is a wrestler; Dr Murli Manohar Joshi is a teacher.

Uma Bharati is the party's best known Lodh, a powerful middle caste from UP and Madhya Pradesh. But the party had one leader who is all three: Kalyan Singh. Singh was a dedicated BJP leader until he was sacked by L K Advani in 1999 for being critical of the PM in public and privately sabotaging Atal Bihari Vajpayee's election.

Now it appears Kalyan Singh is homeward bound, a journey prompted by mutual need. For those who remember those days it was an irony of sorts to see the PM asking Kalyan Singh to sit beside him when he visited Lucknow on December 24 and making much of him. Equally amusing was the exchange that followed.

The PM got up to leave and told Kalyan Singh: "acchhha Kalyan, phir milenge." Kalyan Singh replied: "Jab aap aadesh denge, hazir ho jaoonga". This humility, from a man who criticised Atal Bihari Vajpayee roundly for being two-faced, less than honest and amoral, is a lesson for those who are students of change management.

Misunderstandings, an inability to cope with electoral setbacks and Kalyan Singh's hurt ego, all combined to create the circumstances for his exit. Sadly, the re-entry efforts are taking place among the same kind of intrigue.

Why was Singh thrown out of the party and how did he get a larger than life image in the first place? Singh (aka Babuji to his followers, the most devoted of them being MLA Kusum Rai, the daughter of an associate) belongs to Atrauli near Aligarh and has an RSS training background.

In 1977, when the Janata Party, of which the BJP was a part, came to power in Uttar Pradesh, he was made health minister in the UP government as he was also BJP state president. The next chapter in his political history is the 1989-1992 phase. With V P Singh throwing down the Mandal gauntlet, the BJP had no choice but to respond.

In Singh the party found an ideal candidate for image projection "" a backward who was opposed to Mulayam Singh Yadav, supported the call for the Ram Mandir and was the magnet that the BJP hoped would Hinduise the OBCs, thus politically leveraging the twin spinoffs of the Mandir and the Mandal.

Kalyan Singh was chosen to lead the Ekatmata Yatra and was tasked with covering west Bengal and parts of Bihar. As an idea, the Ekatmata Yatra was brilliant.

BJP leaders travelled to the four corners of India with pots of water from various rivers that would be poured into other rivers, denoting the common strand within the BJP, the unity of purpose. It also helped create a national stature of those whom the organisation identified as promising future leaders.

During the Ekatmata Yatra, Esplanade in Calcutta saw a turnout for a Kalyan Singh public meeting the state had never seen before. In 1991, Kalyan Singh became chief minister. Atal Bihari Vajpayee who attended the Sarnath national executive meeting of the BJP said about Singh: "He is a backward leader, but he doesn't do the politics of the OBCs".

Sadly, however, that dream was punctured. Kalyan Singh thought that his popularity was at its peak in 1993, after the Babri Masjid demolition. But the BJP got only 176 seats in the assembly, making it impossible to form a government.

The BJP realised for the first time that he was not as tall a leader as they had imagined. The OBC vote split, with the Kurmis identifying better with the Bahujan Samaj Party.

In 1997, elections were held again and once again, all Kalyan Singh could manage was about 176, a virtual re-run of his previous electoral performance, reaffirming that the BJP needed another leader if it was to consolidate its support base in UP.

In 1997, the BJP committed what in hindsight seems its cardinal error. It agreed to share its base with Mayawati. Kalyan Singh opposed the deal but then began the famous experiment in which Singh was supposed to be chief minister for six months and Mayawati for six months by rotation. Mayawati ruled for six months and when Kalyan Singh's turn came, she withdrew support. Once again the BJP was plunged into a crisis.

By now, several other faces had emerged in the BJP to stake a claim for leadership in UP. Rajnath Singh managed rebellions in other parties, which helped the BJP form a government.

Lalji Tandon, manager for the Lucknow constituency, became the pointsman for Vajpayee so that when the latter would come to Lucknow Tandon would bypass Kalyan Singh. By now Vajpayee was prime minister so the insult was even deeper. Emasculated and humiliated, Kalyan Singh looked for ways to get even with the party that had nurtured and supported him.

He hit back the only way he knew how. In the 1998-99 general election, he directed the district magistrate and the Superintendent of Police to not cooperate with Lalji Tandon, this leaving himself open to the charge that he had tried to sabotage the Prime Minister's election. Govindacharya advised him to step down from chief ministership.

He was replaced by Ram Prakash Gupta, the RSS leader who was unknown and who had difficulty recalling the names of his MLAs. Later he was suspended and expelled from the BJP, on the express instructions of L K Advani.

For several years, Kalyan Singh remained outside the saffron brotherhood, though even then, he did not betray his former colleagues at the Liberhan Commission (inquiring into the circumstances leading to the Ayodhya demolition) hearings by the simple expedient of refusing to attend them.

Now however, things are changing. Swami Chinmayanand, a Thakur in saffron and current home minister who was publicly praised for his efficiency by L K Advani recently at a parliamentary party meeting, thinks that he could become the party's chief in UP. The timing is right "" just before the general elections.

If Kalyan Singh, an OBC, were to return to the party, it would neutralise fellow Thakur Rajnath Singh's chances and ensure Chinmayanand a slot. Uma Bharati too, is working enthusiastically for Kalyan Singh's return.

Whether he will return or not is uncertain, for there are many lobbies working to foil this move. But their parting of ways has done neither Kalyan Singh nor the BJP any good. His return could herald a new beginning for BJP politics in UP.