Kalyan Singh: BJP's posterboy for Ram Temple movement

The 89-year-old leader was a doyen of the BJP who had played a key role in the Ayodhya movement. He was one of the most prominent leaders of BJP who helped shape its rise in the most populous state of the country.

NEW DELHI: BJP veteran and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, who was ailing for some time, died at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) in Lucknow on Saturday night. He was 89. Hailing from the Lodh community, Kalyan Singh helped BJP expand its social base among OBCs and weaker sections, especially in Uttar Pradesh.  His political and administrative decisions also contributed to BJP`s rise in the state after the party first came to power in 1991. The OBC face of the BJP, Singh was also the first BJP Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (from June 1991 to December 1992). Kalyan Singh served as Chief Minister of UP twice and as a former governor of Rajasthan and also held various organisational posts in the BJP, both in the state and the central level.