Kalyan's party merges with BJP

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh’s Jan Kranti Party (JKP) merged with his parent party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), here on Monday.

Although Singh himself did not join the BJP owing to some “technical reasons,” the JKP led by its president and Kalyan Singh’s son Rajveer Singh merged the party .

The merger was formalised at a public meeting here in the presence of BJP chief Nitin Gadkari and a host of other senior party leaders.

Kalyan Singh said he would have to resign his Lok Sabha seat if he joined the BJP now.

An emotional Singh vowed never to leave the BJP again. “It is my last wish that after my death my body is wrapped in the BJP flag,” Singh, who twice left the party in the past, declared before the people, who comprised a large number of JKP workers from the state.

Singh almost declared Nitin Gadkari the next party chief and also extended him his best wishes. “It seems to me that Gadkariji will be re-elected the BJP chief and so my congratulations to him, ” he said.

Singh, an old RSS worker, had left the BJP first in 1999 but had returned in 2004 just before the Parliamentary elections. He again left the party in 2009 citing humiliation by the party and formed a new outfit.