Kalyan aides please Mulayam, back SP candidates

LUCKNOW, SEPT 28: If there is one opponent Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav does not criticise in his election speeches, it is U...

LUCKNOW, SEPT 28: If there is one opponent Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav does not criticise in his election speeches, it is Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh. The reason is not difficult to see. Kalyan and his supporters’ lack of interest in the BJP’s campaign has been helping Mulayam.

Sample this: Kalyan’s son Rajvir Singh openly appealed in Aligarh to vote for SP’s Sunil Singh. His associates Jitendra Jaiswal and Anand Sharma have been working for SP candidates Yamuna Nishad in Gorakhpur and Baleshwar Yadav in Padrauna respectively. Kalyan’s protege Swami Sachchidanand Sakshi was provided a helicopter by Mulayam to campaign for his party.

“If you want to strengthen Kalyan’s hands, vote for the Samajwadi Party because they are one,” Sakshi said in his speeches while campaigning for the 30 seats that went to polls in the first phase on September 18.

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Kalyan has not contradicted Sakshi’s claims. Sakshi asserts at his public meetings: “Whatever I am say, it has the mute consent ofKalyan. But he can’t come out openly on it because he is a caged lion while Mulayam is a free tiger. Kalyan will come out of the BJP shackles after the elections,” Sakshi claims. The BJP had won 25 seats in 1998 and if the exit polls are to be believed, it would be able to win only 15 this time.

Mulayam does not admit to have persuaded Sakshi to campaign against the BJP. “I will speak to him after the polls,” he told The Indian Express. He has kind words for not only Sakshi but also another of Kalyan’s associate, Kusum Rai.

“The BJP, by asking her to resign from the chairmanship of the State Social Welfare Board, has made her a heroine,” he says. However, he avoids any discussion on Sakshi and Kalyan. He maintains: “I don’t think Kalyan will leave the BJP.”

Despite efforts by the BJP’s top leadership, Kalyan has not denied the claims made by Sakshi.