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Kalyan disowns Ram temple movement

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh today announced that he would float a new national political party.

Addressing a press conference in Lucknow, he said all the formalities regarding the name and registration of the party would be completed very soon.

Kalyan Singh, who was expelled from the Bharatiya Janata Party only yesterday, declared that he would dissociate himself from the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh and also the Ram Temple movement.

He said his party would contest all the 425 seats in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections next year. The search for suitable candidates for his party had already been launched, he added.

Kalyan Singh said he had no intention to topple the Ram Prakash Gupta government. ''It would fall on its own in the near future.''

He claimed that his expulsion from the BJP would have an adverse impact on the party's organisation in the state. He said a large number of party workers today resigned in Lucknow, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Atal Bihari vajpayee.

''It is clear that Vajpayee has lost faith of the party workers... he should resign and contest the Lok Sabha election all over again,'' he demanded.

Singh said he was dissociating himself from the RSS because the organisation had already disowned him. ''I refuse to be tied down by one-sided loyalty.''

UNI

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