This Article is From Jul 15, 2010

Mulayam says "sorry" for Kalyan mistake

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav has apologised to Muslims for associating with Kalyan Singh, a key accused in the Babri mosque demolition.

Mulayam Singh had allied with the former BJP leader ahead of the Lok Sabha polls elections last year, but that partnership fell apart after his party's poor performance.

The apology is clearly Mulayam's effort after the 2009 disaster to mend fences with his primary vote bank.  

"In the last Lok Sabha polls, I had to take the support of some wrong elements to keep communal forces at bay from forming government at the Centre. This confused the secular forces, especially my Muslim brothers and their feelings were hurt..I accept my mistake and seek pardon of the

Muslim community for my act", he said, promising that he would never again "take the support of those responsible for the Babri mosque demolition."

The coming together of Mulayam and Kalyan had raised eyebrows both within and outside the Samajwadi party. Kalyan Singh was the BJP Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in December, 1992, when the mosque was demolished and he was seen as one of the faces of the BJP's Hindutva agenda then. He quit the BJP last year.

After the elections, having won only 23 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP, the Samajwadi Party had accepted that the Muslim voter had drifted away.

UP has a substantial Muslim voter base and much of the minority voting happens on trust. Mulayam lost that trust in the 2009 elections. Will he regain it?

 
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