They claimed for years that they shared a father-daughter relationship but in the coming UP Assembly elections, they will campaign against each other.
Former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh and former MP chief minister Uma Bharti will now campaign against each other — Ms Bharti for BJP and Mr Singh against BJP.
“I will not only field a candidate against Uma Bharti if she contests in UP but will also campaign against her. The BJP is decidedly against OBCs and if Uma Bharti has chosen to support such forces, she will have to face us in the battlefield,” said Mr Singh who is now working overtime to set up the Jan Kranti Party that is headed by his son Rajvir Singh.
Mr Kalyan Singh’s decision to campaign against Uma Bharti will obviously upset the BJP applecart since the party had hoped that by hoping in Ms Bharti, it would dilute the Kalyan factor.
“We expect that Uma Bhati’s involvement in UP BJP will blunt Kalyan Singh’s attack on us because he treats her like his daughter and will never think of damaging her politically,” a senior BJP leader had confided not to so long ago.
On Monday, the same leader said, “It is a shock for us and we hope Uma Bharti is able to convince Kalyan Singh and dilute his anger.”
Meanwhile, Mr Kalyan Singh has launched another attack on the BJP accusing it of Muslim appeasement.
“We will never tolerate any cut in the OBC reservation quota and the BJP is simply supporting the demand for Muslim reservation because it feels it will help the party in the elections. Providing reservation on the basis of religion is against the Constitution and states providing religion-based reservations are doing a wrong. If the BJP supports this demand, it will lose its political identity forever,” he said.
He warned that he would make this into a poll issue and expose the BJP.