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BJP dissolves unit in Kalyan's home district

Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh today dissolved the Aligarh district unit of the party on account of its 'ineffectiveness', giving a new twist to the controversy sparked by former chief minister Kalyan Singh's suspension.

Aligarh is the home district of Kalyan Singh. He had chosen the district to start his revolt against party stalwart and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, leading to his suspension.

Dr Rampati Ram, state BJP general secretary, said in Lucknow that Rajnath Singh had constituted a nine-member ad-hoc committee to deal with the day-to-day functioning of the party in Aligarh.

The committee is headed by Subash Singh while Guneesh Gour will be the vice-president. Yogendra Singh 'Laloo' has been appointed general secretary and Chandrawati, the secretary. Anil Agrawal has been made the treasurer while Vikram Singh Hindol, Keshav Singh Bhagel, Rajendra Singh and Tulsi Prasad will be the other members of the committee.

Meanwhile, Kalyan Singh said he is giving final shape to his reply to the show-cause notice issued to him and it will be on party chief Shashikant 'Kushabhau' Thakre's table by tomorrow.

Talking to reporters at his residence in Lucknow, Singh said he is preparing a point-by-point reply to the notice. Yet, he said he knew he would be expelled.

His stance, however, was not as offensive as it has been in the recent past. Reminding journalists of his contribution to the growth of the BJP, he said the party, which had members from only a couple of communities, had grown from a small urban organisation because he had enrolled thousands of members. Yet, today he had been suspended even from its primary membership and efforts are on to expel him.

Singh scotched all speculation about his forming a new party in Ayodhya on December 6 with the announcement that he would not go to the town that day.

He said he would take a decision in the matter only if he was expelled from the party.

He said the daily meetings of the state's legislators with Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta indicated how nervous the party was feeling about his expulsion.

He again took up cudgels against Prime Minister Vajpayee, saying nobody had the guts to speak out against him and 'Ganesh parikrama' (sycophancy) was the order of the day. Only he had mustered the courage to take on Vajpayee.

On his future strategy, he merely recited a line of verse: Hum abhi say kya bataayen kya hamaray dil mein hai (what can I tell you what is in my heart at present).

UNI

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