The cash-crunch his government is facing and the traffic hazards created by the installation of the statues at roundabouts in the city have not deterred him. Neither have the objections raised the Archeological Survey of India. The Chief Minister is trying to emerge as a leader acceptable to the dominant castes in the state.

Between November 6 and 16, Kalyan Singh unveiled the statues of Maharani Awanti Bai (a Lodh), Rabindranath Tagore (a Bengali), Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel (a Kurmi), Uda Devi (a Passi) and Maharana Pratap (a Thakur). In an attempt to win over the Thakurs, the statue of Maharana Pratap on Chetak was unveiled on November 6 since the Kshatriya sammelan was to be held two days later. Rajnath Singh was also invited to the function organised that day.

The celebration of SardarVallabh Bhai Patel's birth anniversary surprised everybody. Kalyan Singh turned it into a Kurmi function -- part of his strategy to refurbish his image in the community. He had been branded anti-Kurmi by former Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati after his government renamed Shahuji Maharaj Nagar as Chitrakoot.

In wooing the Passi community, Kalyan Singh faces competition from Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh. Five years ago, in a bid to win over the community, Mayawati discovered Uda Devi who had been shot dead by British soldiers in Lucknow during the 1857 uprising. Not to be left behind, five months back, Kalyan Singh ordered a full-length statue of Uda Devi to be installed at the Sikandarbagh crossing on her death anniversary which fell on November 16, ignoring whatever objections the ASI had raised. Mulayam Singh too made it to the occasion.

However, Samajwadi Party's state president Ram Sharan Das yesterday criticised the Kalyan Singh government's move to installstatues of persons of dubious characters on the roundabouts of the city. ``When our party is voted to power all such statues will be demolished,'' he promised.

Das accused the government of installing statues of leaders who were British informers and tried to sabotage the freedom movement.