New Delhi: Two-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP veteran Kalyan Singh died in Lucknow on Saturday (August 21, 2021) night. Singh, who was undergoing treatment at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI), took his last breath at the age of 89.
Singh held various organisational posts in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the state and the central level and was also a former governor of Rajasthan. He was instrumental in the rise of the saffron party to power in Uttar Pradesh in the 1990s.
Singh, notably, was the Uttar Pradesh chief minister when the Babri mosque was demolished by a mob of 'karsevaks' in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. He was among the 32 people who were acquitted in the demolition case in September 2020.
Several politicians including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and incumbent Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath condoled Singh's demise.
I am saddened beyond words. Kalyan Singh Ji…statesman, veteran administrator, grassroots level leader and great human. He leaves behind an indelible contribution towards the development of Uttar Pradesh. Spoke to his son Shri Rajveer Singh and expressed condolences. Om Shanti. pic.twitter.com/ANOU2AJIpS
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 21, 2021
प्रभु श्री राम से प्रार्थना है कि दिवंगत पुण्यात्मा को अपने श्री चरणों में स्थान दें और शोक-संतप्त परिजनों को दु:ख सहने की शक्ति प्रदान करें।
समाज, कल्याण सिंह जी को उनके युगांतरकारी निर्णयों, कर्तव्यनिष्ठा व शुचितापूर्ण जीवन के लिए सदियों तक स्मरण करते हुए प्रेरित होता रहेगा।
— Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) August 21, 2021
Paying tribute to the senior politician, Uttar Pradesh BJP also shared an old clip where Singh is seen pledging his allegiance to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
"The sanskaars of the Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party are in the drop of my blood and that is why I wish that I remain in the BJP for the rest of my life and when my life is about to end, my dead body is wrapped in BJP's flag," Singh had said with teary eyes.
संघ और भारतीय जनता पार्टी के संस्कार मेरे रक्त के बूंद-बूंद में समाए हुए हैं और इसीलिए मेरी इच्छा है कि मैं जीवनभर भाजपा में रहूं और जीवन का जब अंत होने को हो तो मेरा शव भी @BJP4India के झंडे में लिपट कर जाए
भारत मां के महान सपूत, प्रभु राम के अनन्य भक्त को भावभीनी श्रद्धांजलिpic.twitter.com/4GwGDufOvJ
— BJP Uttar Pradesh (@BJP4UP) August 21, 2021
Singh was born on January 5, 1932, and first became an MLA in 1967. He then went on to be the first BJP chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1991. He got his second shot at the top post in September 1997, becoming chief minister again under a six-month rotation formula with the BSP.
(With agency inputs)
