With former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh owning up moral responsibility for the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the Congress said it will not share a platform with the former BJP leader.
"We will not share a platform with him (Kalyan Singh). We hold him responsible for the demolition..." UP Congress President Rita Bahuguna Joshi told reporters at the AICC in New Delhi after Kalyan owned up moral responsibility for the demolition.
Joshi's statement on Singh is likely to further complicate the SP-Cong ties, which have seen delays in seat-sharing talks for Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier, Kalyan Singh in a statement in Lucknow, said, "I want to make it clear that I had taken moral responsibility for the demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 and had resigned from the post of chief ministership." Joshi, however, sidestepped queries about the role of the central government, headed by the Congress during the time of the episode, saying that the elected government in the state had then given an affidavit (to protect the mosque).
She said the fault of the Congress-led central government was that it had believed in the affidavit of the elected government of UP. She added that sufficient security forces were provided to the state government at that time.
The UP Congress chief said the party has apologised to the people and claimed that they have also accepted it. As both SP and Congress fight over the issue of the former poster-boy of Hindutva, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, however, defended his decision to take support from Kalyan Singh saying it would neither harm the party's secular face nor is it going to cast any shadow on the SP-Congress alliance.
She said the fault of the Congress-led central government was that it had believed in the affidavit of the elected government of UP. She added that sufficient security forces were provided to the state government at that time.
The UP Congress chief said the party has apologised to the people and claimed that they have also accepted it. As both SP and Congress fight over the issue of the former poster-boy of Hindutva, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, however, defended his decision to take support from Kalyan Singh saying it would neither harm the party's secular face nor is it going to cast any shadow on the SP-Congress alliance.
"I did not see any reason behind Congress disliking Kalyan Singh's association with SP as it is going to weaken communal and casteist forces like BJP and BSP in the state in the coming Lok Sabha polls," he said.
AICC General Secretary in-charge of UP, Digvijay Singh on Tuesday termed Kalyan Singh as a "major problem" and said the party held him responsible for the demolition of the mosque.
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