India | Updated Feb 05, 2009 at 12:14am IST

Kalyan's sorry may not save SP-Cong alliance

New Delhi: From being the face of the Ram temple movement in the 90s to almost apologising for the destruction of Babri Masjid the wheel has turned a full circle for Kalyan Singh.

Once he was Hindutva's posterboy and now he is fighting with those who thrive on attacking Hindutva.

His alliance with Mulayam Singh has created a huge storm. The congress is threatening to walk out of alliance talks and the SP itself getting worried with the increasing restlessness amongst its core minority vote base.

"We will contest all the 80 seats of UP," says, UP congress president, Rita Bahuguna Joshi.

On Tuesday, Mulayam called a meeting of top Muslim clerics in Lucknow. Amar Singh went all the way to Deoband to speak to Islamic scholars to allay any fears within the Minority community.

And now Kalyan himself is trying to bat for the SP. " I don’t have any alliance with Mulayam Singh. I just have a friendship with him. While Muslims have a right to be proud of Islam, Hindus have equal right to be proud of their Hindutva. It’s unfortunate that to realise their political ambitions some people are creating fissures among these two faiths," says Kalyan Singh.

“I don’t need any certificate from the congress on secularism. Who was in power at the centre when the Babri was demolished," says Mulayam Singh.

Uttar Pradesh has always been the state that has been called the gateway to power in the capital. With 17 per cent minority vote, neither the congress nor the SP want to take any chances.

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