Zeenews Bureau
Lucknow: In an indication that the SP was going all out to distance itself from former UP Chief Minister and BJP leader Kalayan Singh, Jayaprada, SP Member of Parliament from Rampur, said that SP had used Kalyan Singh to give a blow to BJP.
She further said that there was no need for Kalyan Singh now.
Earlier today, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had announced that he was breaking all ties with former BJP leader Kalyan Singh.
Speaking to reporters Mulayam said, “Kalyan Singh is not a part of the Samajwadi Party… he himself says he is not a part of any party.”
“He won’t contest election from now onwards even if he wants to,” Mulayam added.
The development comes in the wake of the Samajwadi Party losing Ferozabad Lok Sabha seat by-poll, once considered to be Yadav family’s bastion, to Congress. Mulayam’s daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav lost to Raj Babbar by a huge margin of over 85,000 votes.
Mulayam had joined hands with the BJP rebel and former UP CM Kalyan Singh before this year’s General Elections. The alliance was seen as an effort by Mulayam to garner Lodhi votes in the state through Kalyan.
However, Mulayam’s former colleague and senior SP leader Azam Khan opposed the alliance and revolted against the party which later led to his ouster from the SP.
Azam had feared that Kalyan, who is accused of playing a part in the Babri Masjid demolition and anti-Muslim riots in the state in 1993, would result in SP losing major chunk of its Muslim voters in the state.
SP to decide on support to UPA "at the right time"
Amid fresh strains with Congress after the Ferozabad Lok Sabha by-election, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday said his party will take a decision "at the right time" on the issue of support to the UPA.
"The party will look into the matter at the right time," he said when asked whether SP will withdraw support from the UPA after Congress candidate Raj Babbar defeated Yadav's daughter-in-law Dimple in the by-election, necessitated after her husband Akhilesh vacated the seat and retained Kannuj.
"We extended support to Congress to prevent BJP," he said, parrying a direct reply to the question by reporters.
When pressed further, he said it is only six months of the UPA-II.
Accepting the defeat, Yadav alleged that Congress has spent crores of rupees in campaigning. "We are in the process of reviewing the reasons behind our performance," he said.
Maintaining that everyone knew how by-elections are contested and won, he said, "When the SP was in power we won all the by-elections barring one for Ghazipur, that too due to a political murder. Even the BSP lost Akbarpur seat, which was vacated by its president Mayawati."
"I would like to tell all those who dream of writing me off that when a lady with grit like Indira Gandhi could not finish me, then no person can do so," he said.
He said SP was written off in the past several times, "but we bounced back time and again. The party will do it again in the future and will get absolute majority on its own in the next Assembly elections."
Regarding SP's defeat in the Assembly by-elections in his home turf Etawah, he again blamed Congress.
First Published: Saturday, November 14, 2009, 18:54