Had invited Mulayam to condolence meeting for Kalyan Singh: UP BJP chief

A day after he met Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh said on Tuesday that he had invited the veteran leader to a condolence meeting for former chief minister Kalyan Singh.

The Samajwadi Party skipped the 'Sharadhanjali Sabha' on Tuesday.

"I met SP founder Mulayam Singh ji yesterday to invite him for the Sabha here. I also talked to BSP supremo Mayawati ji and she has sent Satish (Chandra Mishra)," said Swatantra Dev Singh, who had last week attacked SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav suggesting that he did not pay his last respects to Kalyan Singh due to the fear of riling Muslim voters.

He said that about 40 small parties were invited, of which 20-25 participated in the Sabha which was organised in the state capital to pay tributes to the former state chief minister and BJP veteran.

The UP BJP chief had met Mulayam Singh Yadav at the latter's residence here on Monday and had said that he enquired about the SP leader's well-being.

After the meeting, Singh had shared on Twitter a picture of him standing with Yadav.

"Met respectable Mulayam Singh ji 'netaji' at his residence, enquired about his well-being and also took his blessings. I pray to God for his good health and long life," Singh tweeted in Hindi.

Kalyan Singh had died on August 21.

A Hindutva icon and an OBC leader, he was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh when the Babri mosque was demolished by 'kar sevaks' in Ayodhya in 1992.

Swatantra Dev Singh has asked Mulayam's son and SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav if he could not travel a distance of barely a kilometre from his residence to Mall Avenue to pay tributes to the departed leader.

"Has the love for the Muslim vote bank stopped him from paying tributes to the biggest leader of the backward class?" he had asked in a tweet in Hindi.

However, hitting back at him, the SP had said that it was the "Samajwadis" who stood by Kalyan Singh when he was sacked by the saffron party.

Referring to events that took place in 1999, Samajwadi Party (SP) spokesperson Anurag Bhadouria had said, "The BJP should be a national or international company when it comes to marketing events. It was the BJP that had sidelined Kalyan Singh and sacked him. At that time, the SP helped him and gave him the due honour."

Kalyan Singh had allied with SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav after quitting the BJP and launching his own outfit. The bonhomie, however, lasted only for a brief period.