BSP Supremo Mayawati Pays Tributes To Kalyan Singh

Lucknow, August 22 (TNA) They were not in the best of terms but Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Sunday stepped out of her fortified residence to pay her last respects to former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh, who passed away at the SGPGI late on Saturday.

She told waiting reporters that her party was extremely saddened by the passing away of the two-time UP chief minister and extended her condolences to the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss. The two leaders shared a topsy turvy relationship.

The Uttar Pradesh assembly elections of 1996 had led to a hung assembly, and a further period of President's rule, before the BJP and the BSP formed an alliance, allowing Mayawati to become Chief Minister in March 1997. Kalyan Singh became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second time in September 1997, taking the post over from Mayawati as part of their power-sharing agreement.

In February 1998, his government withdrew cases against those accused in the Babri Masjid demolition, stating that a Ram temple would be built at the site if the BJP were to take power in Delhi.The BSP and BJP came into conflict over the policies and on 21 October 1997 the BSP withdrew support for Singh's government.

Singh however succeeded in continuing in office with the support of a breakaway faction of the BSP, and a breakaway faction of the INC, led by INC MLA Naresh Agrawal, the Akhil Bharatiya Loktantrik Congress. On 21 February 1998, Singh's government was dismissed by the Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Romesh Bhandari, after Agrawal withdrew support to Singh's government.

Bhandari invited Jagdambika Pal of the INC to form a new government, in which Agrawal became deputy chief minister.Bhandari's order was stayed by a division bench of the Allahabad High Court, which reinstated Singh's administration two days after its dismissal.