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Kalyan returns with 4-point BJP revival plan
All set for a pre-Diwali homecoming to the BJP, former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh appears to be in celebratory mode. Talking tall of reviving the party much the same way as he had done after his first return to the saffron fold in 2004, Kalyan said in Lucknow on Tuesday, "I have four formulas to revive the BJP". Manish Chandra Pandey reports. Comeback King
All set for a pre-Diwali homecoming to the BJP, former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh appears to be in celebratory mode.
Talking tall of reviving the party much the same way as he had done after his first return to the saffron fold in 2004, Kalyan said in Lucknow on Tuesday, "I have four formulas to revive the BJP".
Senior BJP leaders anticipate his re-entry over the next few days along with his Jan Kranti Party (Rashtrawadi). "All formalities have been completed," said a leader.
Kalyan had floated the JKP after his second exit from the BJP in 2009, following differences over ticket distribution. His third homecoming is likely to coincide with the candidate selection for the general elections, which many in the BJP feel could be held before 2014.
This time, though, he is expected to have a say, as the party's former chief Rajnath Singh is said to be taking a keen interest in the return of the poster boy of the temple movement. He was the CM when the Babri Masjid was demolished.
The BJP has 10 Lok Sabha members from the state at present, a figure which saffron strategists hope could be bettered by galvanising all 'like-minded forces'.
Kalyan is busy playing out the RSS plan to revive the Hindutva brigade - first owning up responsibility for the Babri Masjid demolition (he has done that several times in the past) and then on Tuesday talking of not indulging in "appeasement politics".
He was referring to the ruling Samajwadi Party with which he had flirted for a while after leaving the BJP in 2009.
"Of course, Kalyan Singhji's return would help us very much," said state BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpai. Barring adding his Bulandshahr Lok Sabha seat to the BJP kitty, Kalyan had failed to deliver much in 2004.
A party leader, however, said Kalyan being a backward leader and a powerful orator augurs well for the party.
