Gadkari saga may delay Kalyan's re-entry into BJP

With Bharatiya Janata Party president (BJP) Nitin Gadkari battling for his own survival in the wake of allegations of financial irregularities, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and one time powerful saffron leader Kalyan Singh’s return to the saffron party may now be delayed.

“The entire party is currently busy defending Gadkari from attacks on him from different quarters and so Kalyan Singh issue is likely to be taken up only after the situation stabilises,” said a state BJP leader here.

According to the party leaders here, the BJP had planned to announce Singh’s return during the Navratri festival. Revelations against Gadkari forced a change in the plans,” the leader said.

State BJP sources said Gadkari himself was scheduled to announce Singh’s home coming. Singh's supporters had even started preparations to accord him a grand reception upon his arrival at his home town of Aligarh after joining the saffron party.

Even Singh dropped hints that his comeback might be delayed. “I have not been able to meet Gadkariji as he is preoccupied with other things,” Singh said.
 “I have had talks with many senior BJP leaders,” he said.

Singh said he had not set any pre-condition for his return. “Time has taught both me and the BJP a lesson that we both need each other,” said Singh.

According to sources, Singh was concerned over the political future of his son, Rajveer, who continues to be in political wilderness. Rajveer had lost the assembly poll though Kalyan Singh had made it a prestige fight.  Singh, an old RSS worker, left the BJP first in 1999 but 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. He had joined hands with his arch rival and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and even shunned his hardline Hindutva ideology in an attempt to project himself as a secular leader.

 But the experiment proved to be a huge failure and prompted Mulayam to sever all relations with him.