He was, of course, once the BJP's hero, for having paved the way for the demolition of the Babri masjid. But he probably did not know at the time that he was no more than a convenient instrument in the hands of a party with the strong upper caste bias. Once the sacrilegious task was completed, the BJP lost interest in him. Besides, within a short time after the demolition, the party was out of power in U.P. with a government of the Samajwadi Party and the BSP assuming office.

Aware that he had been deceived, Kalyan Singh left the BJP after making unkind remarks about Atal Behari Vajpayee and others. That was the time when he should have charted out a more honourable political course instead of switching back and forth between the “communal” and “secular” camps. But he apparently thought that deviousness was the answer to his political problems. An innate anti-Muslim mindset may have also guided him, for he returned to the BJP to make one of the shrillest speeches at one of its conventions.

Taking off from the familiar saffron slogan that not every Muslim is a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Muslim, the demolisher of Babri masjid went a step further to remind the party faithful that it was in Muslim homes that the terrorists found shelter when they came from Pakistan. Thus, he turned the needle of suspicion at virtually every Muslim, which, of course, has always been the basic thrust of the BJP's and the Sangh parivar's policies.

But even this baring of his Hindutva heart did not save him. Aware that the BJP did not have much time for a backward caste leader like him, Kalyan Singh again sought shelter in the secular camp by becoming Mulayam Singh Yadav's ally. Even this second exercise in floor-crossing might have proved useful if he had expressed genuine repentance for his role in December 1992. But, again, he tried to play both sides by teaming up with the Samajwadi Party but not saying “sorry” for the demolition of the Babri masjid.

The only effect of such two-timing was that he demolished the Samajwadi Party as well. As the latter's defeat in all the seats it contested in the recent by-elections in U.P. showed, the minorities have lost faith in “Maulana” Mulayam, as the BJP once called him. It is now obvious that befriending Kalyan Singh was the biggest mistake which the Samajwadi Party chief made. His calculation apparently was that he would weaken the BJP while adding to his own party's backward caste tally with Kalyan Singh's help. But even if the BJP was weakened, any consolidation of the OBC votes by the two leaders did not offset the loss of minority support.

Apart from the Kalyan Singh factor, one of the reasons why the minorities appear to have deserted the Samajwadi Party is the Congress's renewed popularity among them after the return of the Nehru-Gandhi family at its helm. It does not take much political perspicacity to say that the Congress would have remained unacceptable to the Muslims if Narasimha Rao was still there. The Congress's success in winning the Ferozabad Lok Sabha and the Lucknow west assembly seats shows that the revival of its fortunes, which was first seen in the parliamentary polls, is continuing, albeit at a slow pace.

What is also evident is that the Samajwadi Party has lost much of its earlier influence. It is not only Kalyan Singh's association with the party which has hurt it, but also the strangely backward-looking manifesto which it adopted to signify its opposition to computers and the English language. As a result, it may have alienated large sections of not only the educated classes, but also the peasantry who are aware of the importance of computers and English for the advancement of their children in today's world. The Samajwadi Party's setbacks must have disconcerted Mulayam Singh Yadav all the more considering the gains which Lalu Yadav and Ramvilas Paswan made in Bihar in an earlier round of by-elections.

For the BSP, whose influence remains fairly substantial despite its lacklustre performance in the parliamentary polls, it is the Congress which is now the main opponent and not the Samajwadi Party. The reason is not only the return of the Muslims and the urban middle classes to the Congress, but also the intensive wooing of the Dalits by Rahul Gandhi which cannot but have considerable impact. (IPA Service)