Dealing the BJP a severe blow ahead of general elections, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, during whose rule the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992, today quit the party, saying he had been “humiliated and insulted” by the BJP leadership.

“I have quit the BJP for life. I was feeling suffocated. It was my political blunder to have rejoined the party,” said Kalyan Singh, once the Hindutva face of the BJP in UP. A party vice-president, he had stayed away from party activities for more than year. Today, he said the BJP leadership had refused to listen to his views on even a single Lok Sabha seat.

The 76-year-old leader from the backward Lodh community claimed that the BJP would not get “more than five seats in UP, plus or minus one” out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The BJP won 10 seats in the last Lok Sabha elections.

Though he maintained he would not float a new party nor join any other, he made it clear “I am not retiring from active politics.” He refused to discuss his future plans but confirmed that he had met SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav at his son Rajvir Singh’s house in New Delhi “for three hours”. He said SP general secretary Amar Singh too was present.

He thanked Mulayam Singh for offering his son a SP ticket. Asked whether Rajvir Singh and his aide Kusum Rai, also a BJP MP, too would quit the party, he said they were free to take their own decisions.

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