BJP hardliners in UP see future in Kalyan

LUCKNOW: The back-room boys in the hardline Hindutva camp here appear to have hit upon two politically explosive strategies to rebuild the BJP''s declining fortunes in Uttar Pradesh: bring Kalyan Singh back to the party fold and project Dalit icon Ambedkar as a votary of anti-Muslim ''cultural nationalism''.
Soft, subtle feelers have already been sent to Singh, a former chief minister and one-time BJP hardliner, through oldtime admirers.
Indeed, the backroom strategists - who are gunning for early elections in the state - have done their homework rather well. After analysing the rise and fall of the BJP in UP in the past 10 years, most of these think-tank members have come to the conclusion that it was Kalyan Singh who had taken the urban-based party to the villages and built a following for what was seen as a traders'' party amongst the ''other backward castes''.
They have also realised that but for the services of their former chief minister, the BJP wouldn''t have succeeded in dividing Mulayam Singh Yadav''s backward bastion in its heydays in the nineties. Similarly, the BJP''s downfall coincided with the expulsion of Kalyan Singh from primary membership of the party.
But Mulayam Singh is an extra-alert politician. Aware of the BJP''s impending masterstroke, he has lost no time in getting in touch with Kalyan Singh. In fact, the two leaders have met and "discussed things" at least six times in the past sixty days, sources close to the two say.
Thanks to chief minister Mayawati''s strong-arm measures against BJP and BSP rebels, an electorally deadly OBC-Rajput-Muslim combination has surfaced at the grass-root level in the state. Obviously, Mulayam Singh wants this combination to gather further momentm. He knows that with Kalyan Singh on his side, he can cross the majority mark in the next elections.
As for the second strategy of the Hindutva hardliners, state BJP chief Vinay Katiyar is already touring the state extensively giving lectures on "Ambedkar''s aggressive nationalism". In his speeches, Katiyar talks about Ambedkar''s opposition to partition. He also tells the crowd that Babasaheb wanted all Muslims to emigrate to Pakistan. "Dr Ambedkar is an icon of cultural nationalism", Katiyar says.
Mayawati hasn''t relished what Katiyar said about Babasaheb. In a staement, she described Katiyar''s comments as unfortunate and baseless. She said she had studied the writings of Ambedkar more thoroughly than anybody else. "Ambedkar was a great follower of the philosophy of