Lucknow: Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh breathed his last at the age of 89 at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) in Lucknow on Saturday following a prolonged illness.
He was earlier admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital on July 4 due to infection and low level of consciousness.
Singh was undergoing treatment at the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences here before being shifted to PGI.
Back in 1991, he became the first BJP chief minister of the country’s most populous state.
The defining moment of Singh’s life was the fall of the Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992.
Hours after it was demolished by a mob of kar sevaks, Singh stepped down as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, taking moral responsibility.
Perhaps it was destiny that the structure would be demolished with me as chief minister, PTI told Singh in a newspaper report ahead of the 2020 Bhoomi Pujan for the Ram temple, now following a historic Supreme Court ruling. It is being built at the once disputed site in Ayodhya. .
He said that if the demolition had not happened, perhaps even the courts would have ordered to maintain the status quo. And his last wish, he said, was to live till the temple was built.
Hailed by many for his administrative prowess during his two terms as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the influential backward caste leader from western UP twice parted ways with the BJP and for some time even his own organisation. Make it
His second run was before the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, when he said that he felt humiliated by the party and complained that he had hardly any say in the selection of candidates in his state.
Singh said it was a political mistake to rejoin the BJP, which he had left for the first time in 1999, only to return before the general elections in 2004.
Born on 5 January 1932, Kalyan Singh became an MLA for the first time in 1967. Since then, he has won assembly elections several times, held important positions in the BJP and was appointed governor of Rajasthan in the last phase of his public life.
Soon after Raj Bhavan’s term ended in 2019, Singh formally joined the BJP as a primary member, indicating that he is not yet keen on retiring from political life.
As the Chief Minister of UP, Singh had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court, assuring that the 16th-century mosque would be protected. But he later ordered the police not to open fire on the protesters, arguing that any such action would result in too much bloodshed.
Recognizing the failure to defend the mosque, he resigned the same evening. The state assembly was dissolved due to riots that broke out in many places in the country.
In the next assembly election in November 1993, he contested from two seats – Atrauli and Kasganj – and won both.
The Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance formed the government in the state under the leadership of Mulayam Singh Yadav, even though the BJP won the maximum number of seats. Singh became the Leader of the Opposition.
He took his second position at the top post in September 1997, becoming chief minister again under a six-month rotation formula with the Bahujan Samaj Party. The system soon collapsed with the BSP withdrawing its support.
But backed by a group of disgruntled opposition members, his government survived. A controversial order by Governor Romesh Bhandari to dismiss his government was also stayed by the High Court.
But a section of BJP MLAs was firing fiercely for him. One reason for the discontent was the alleged interference in the state government by Lucknow corporator Kusum Rai, who was also asked to control access to the chief minister.
In November 1999, Kalyan Singh was removed from the post of Chief Minister by the party high command as opposition grew within the BJP.
Later, he was formally expelled from the party for his comments targeting the top leadership of the party.
Singh appeared to be in sync with Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, who offered his son Rajveer Singh a ticket.
In 2010, he also formed the Jan Kranti Party, but allowed his son to lead it until it merged with the BJP.
All these years, the hearing of the Babri Masjid demolition case continued. Singh was exempted from trial while in the post of governor.
After stepping down as the governor of Rajasthan, he appeared before the CBI court, which pronounced its order in September 2020, acquitting him and 31 others of the charge of conspiracy to demolish the mosque.
The judge concluded that there was no evidence to show that the demolition was premeditated.
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