Kolkata, Dec 29: If politics was simply a matter of cold calculation and self-interest, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Mr Kalyan Singh, should never have been reduced to a marginal figure in Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s camp. A formidable campaigner and administrator, who deftly combined his commitment to Hindutva with a backward-caste appeal, he would have been in the top rung of the leadership had he continued in the Bharatiya Janata Party. What proved his undoing was his exaggerated sense of self-importance in a structured party and his feud with the prime minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee. As chief minister of the BJP government, he was held responsible for sabotaging the party’s general election campaign in the state in 1999. It was an unpardonable offence that cost him his job and led to his expulsion from the BJP in 2000. Since then, Mr Singh has been on the fringes of local politics. His Rashtriya Krantikari Party may have only four members of the legislative assembly, but it was his rebellion that cost the BJP its entire backward caste support in the 2002 assembly election. Mr Singh teamed up with his old Samajwadi Party adversary earlier this year, but his status was that of a local satrap. Outside the BJP, he had to be content with the role of a respected has-been. It is Mr Singh’s good luck that events have narrowed the differences between him and the BJP. Bereft of a state leader and desperate to regain its backwardcaste base, the party has been silently wooing Mr Singh for the past eight months. He too has shed his hatred of Mr Vajpayee. The symbolic reconciliation on Christmas Day in Lucknow has lifted the BJP’s spirits and restored Mr Singh’s importance in state politics. It would be logical if the RKP is now wound up and he returns to his original place in the BJP. However, if this rapprochement is effected, there are bound to be some complications for the BJP. For a start, the party’s undercover understanding with the Samajwadi Party is certain to get unstuck. The Samajwadi Party has already let it be known that it will view Mr Singh’s desertion from Mr Yadav’s government as an act of poaching and will retaliate by cosying up to the Congress before the 2004 general election. This is a real threat, but it may not change the course of events. With Mr Vajpayee’s personal stock soaring, the BJP believes that a reinvigorated party plus the right chemistry will do wonders for it in Uttar Pradesh next year. Mr Singh may have the satisfaction of being in the right place at the right time.