Kalyan Singh

Kalyan Singh (5 January 1932 – 21 August 2021) was an Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He served twice as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and as a Member of Parliament. He was the Chief minister of Uttar Pradesh during the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992. He was a prominent figure within Hindu nationalism, and in the agitation to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya. Singh became a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh while still in school. He entered the Uttar Pradesh legislature as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Atrauli in 1967. He won nine more elections to that constituency as a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the BJP, the Janata Party and the Rashtriya Kranti Party. Singh was appointed Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the first time in 1991, but resigned following the demolition of the Babri Masjid. He became Chief Minister for a second term in 1997, but was removed by his party in 1999, and left the BJP, forming his own party. Singh re-entered the BJP in 2004, and was elected a Member of Parliament from Bulandshahar. He left the BJP for a second time in 2009, and successfully contested the 2009 Indian general election as an independent from Etah. He joined the BJP again in 2014, and was appointed Governor of Rajasthan. He served a five-year term, and re-entered active politics in 2019. In September 2019 he was brought to trial for criminal conspiracy to demolish the Babri Masjid. He was acquitted by a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2020. He died on 21 August 2021 in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. He was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award.