Kalyan Singh rejoined the BJP in Lucknow on Monday, four days after his tenure as governor of Rajasthan ended.
Singh, who was one of the most prominent faces of the Ram Mandir movement, has considerable influence over Lodh caste voters in western parts of the state.
His return to the party gains significance in the light of the forthcoming bypolls in the Uttar Pradesh when 12 seats will be up for grabs. The BJP had nine of these seats, which fell vacant after their occupants were elected to the Lok Sabha.
However, Singh told the media at the party headquarters in Lucknow that he was not back to fight elections. “Politics is a means of serving the public. To retire from it means to retire from serving the public”, he explained when questioned about the timing of his return to the party.
Singh had served as the state's chief minister from June 1991 to December 1992 and again from September 1997 to November 1999. He was the chief minister when Babri Masjid was demolished.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Singh had attracted criticism for asking votes for the BJP despite occupying a constitutional position which called for political neutrality.
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He, however, had claimed that he conducted himself with utmost dignity when he was the governor. “But I always kept an eye on what was happening in all the districts of the state”, he added.
He denied he had any hand in the party’s strategies during his years away from active politics. “Those who have the reigns of the party are very capable. They have taken good decisions, done good work and have earned the trust of the public,” he said soon after joining the party in the presence of the state party president Swatantra Dev Singh.
The end of Singh’s tenure also terminates the immunity he had enjoyed as governor as per Article 361 of the Indian Constitution. As per the Article, no criminal proceedings can be initiated against the President of India or the governor of a state. The Babri Masjid demolition case is being tried in the Supreme Court.
Singh's return to the party, thus, is as much his need as the BJP's which has flogged the Ram Mandir issue of late. Thus the enthusiastic welcome extended to Singh, who has had a chequered past.
In 2010, he had floated his political outfit called the Jan Kranti Party. But on Monday, Singh papered over that with praise for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. “There has not been a single riot in a state as sensitive as this in the last two years”, he said.
