Kalyan Singh cremated, top leaders attend funeral

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh was cremated Monday with senior leaders, party workers and a large number of local people congregating at Bansi Ghat in Bulandshahr’s Narora town for the last rites.

Rajveer Singh lit his father’s pyre at the funeral attended by senior BJP leaders, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.

The two-time CM, who had also been the Rajasthan Governor, died at a Lucknow hospital on Saturday after spending weeks in the ICU.

A Hindutva icon, Singh was the Uttar Pradesh chief minister when ‘Kar Sevaks” demolished the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

The others present at the cremation ground were UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, BJP leader Uma Bharti, besides a number of state ministers, BJP workers and local people, officials said.

They said Singh was cremated with full state honours after his mortal remains were brought here from Ahilya Bai Holkar stadium in Aligarh, where they were kept for the people to pay their last respect.

From Aligarh, the late BJP leader’s body was first taken to Atrauli, near his native village Madholi, and was kept there for ‘darshan’, before being taken to Narora.

In Atrauli, Singh’s mortal remains were kept in the PWD Guest House, where various dignitaries, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Madhya Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, BJP state president Swatantra Dev Singh paid their tributes.

A Lodhi leader, Kalyan Singh was instrumental in the rise of the BJP to power in Uttar Pradesh in the 1990s.

He is survived by his wife Ramvati Devi, son Rajveer Singh, who is the Lok Sabha MP from Etah, and grandson Sandeep Singh, who is the minister of state for finance, technical education and medical education in Uttar Pradesh.