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Kalyan floats Rashtriya Kranti Party

Amberish K Diwanji in New Delhi

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kalyan Singh today announced the launch of his new party, the Rashtriya Kranti Party (National Revolutionary Party). He made the announcement today evening after he had a meeting with the Election Commission of India where the RKP was registered as a political party.

Kalyan Singh said his party would fight for a social revolution and seek the upliftment of the Dalits and other socially backward classes of India. As a first step, he demanded reservation in government jobs for Jats among the Other Backward Classes and for the upper castes who are economically backward .

Singh said he would participate in the Kannauj Tirwa on December 26 while his party's first public rally would be held at Bulandshahr in UP on December 28. He is also due to participate at a private function in Azamgarh on December 20.

Kalyan Singh also declared that his party would have no alliance with any other party at this stage, but would fight the elections in UP alone.

Though earlier it was expected that many members of the UP legislative assembly and a few Members of Parliament would join him, none have done so yet. Singh had boasted to that effect initially though over the past few days he has kept quiet.

He also declared that he is not interested in the support of the MPs and the MLAs but in the support of the people who had elected them. "What are the MPs and MLAs without the people? I have the backing of the very people who have elected these MPs and MLAs in the first place," he declared.

Kalyan Singh once more predicted elections in UP soon. Elections there are not due till the middle of 2001, but he said that the government of Ram Prakash Gupta will not last for more than a few months.

In what is also seen as a tactical move, Kalyan Singh categorically declared that at Ayodhya both a Ram temple and a mosque should be built. He also said that the Ram temple dispute should be resolved by the religious leaders from among the Hindus and the Muslims. He said that he firmly believed that political parties must stay away from the religious issue.

It was during Kalyan Singh's tenure as UP's CM that Hindu fanatics destroyed the Babri mosque. Though Kalyan Singh's government was dismissed following the mosque's destruction, he had emerged as the hero of the Hindu right wing, an image that he is now trying hard to play down.

Meanwhile, Kusum Rai, Kalyan's controversial confidante, speaking to rediff.com insisted that Kalyan Singh had not given up the Ram temple issue (building a Ram temple on the site of the destroyed Babri mosque in Ayodhya). "He is still a Ram bhakt (devotee) but he believes that politics and religion must not be mixed," she added.

On Home Minister L K Advani's statement that Singh had "lost his balance" in claiming that there was a dispute brewing between Advani and Prime Minister Vajpayee, Singh pointed out that the statement had not been signed by Advani and had actually emanated from the prime minister's office. "The very fact that the statement does not have a signature only proves what I have been claiming, that Advani is under pressure from Vajpayee," he declared.

In what must surely rank as a remarkable coincidence, only a few rooms away from where Kalyan Singh was staying in the Uttar Pradesh Sadan, his successor, UP chief minister Ram Prakash Gupta, was lodged. Gupta was in Delhi to meet BJP leaders and also attend the funeral of BJP leader K L Sharma, who died this morning. The guest house staff were busy ensuring that the two did not cross paths!

Asked what impact Kalyan Singh's new party would have, Gupta first said that it was too early to say anything, then added, "His party will have no effect on the BJP in UP." Gupta also insisted that no MLA from the state would be joining Kalyan Singh.

Kusum Rai declared that the new party would have no tie up with any other political outfit. "We will contest all the 425 seats in Uttar Pradesh," she said. She, however, added, that post-election alliances were possible. "With whom we ally will depend upon the number of seats that we get," she said.

When told that contesting elections independently in Uttar Pradesh would split the votes, and which might benefit other parties, she said that both the BJP and the Congress were finished as far as UP was concerned.

"We have already begun to identify the candidates for all the constituencies," she added. She revealed that the Rashtriya Kranti Party may have some sort of pre-election arrangement with another party in Bihar.

Kusum Rai insisted that the MPs and MLAs are not declaring their intention of joining Kalyan Singh's party for tactical reasons and will make their move once the situation becomes clear. "And we don't care for those MPs and MLAs who are too scared of the BJP high command that they don't dare speak up. We only want the brave people to be with us," she said.

Kusum Rai, whose closeness to Kalyan Singh was one of the factors that had upset the former chief minister's detractors, also spat venom on the BJP. "Today, the BJP has been reduced to a skeleton of a party. It has no life in it. Both at the state and the Centre the party has lost its spirit," she claimed.

She said that right now her only goal was to work with full devotion to making the new party a strong political force and destroy the BJP completely.

Kusum Rai claimed that no person had worked as hard as Kalyan Singh to make the BJP the political force that it is today in UP. "And see what he gets in return," she said.

She also said that Vajpayee had pushed for Kalyan Singh's expulsion. "Vajpayee had declared that he would not visit Lucknow (Vajpayee's constituency) till Kalyan Singh was removed as chief minister. In such a situation, there was no alternative for Kalyan Singh," she claimed.

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