Lucknow, Aug 25 (PTI) Hitting out at the BJP for attacking its chief Akhilesh Yadav for not paying a visit to former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh's residence to pay tributes to the departed leader, the SP on Wednesday said it was the "Samajwadis" who stood by Singh when he was sacked by the saffron party.

Referring to events that took place in 1999, Samajwadi Party (SP) spokesperson Anurag Bhadouria said, "The BJP should be a national or international company when it comes to marketing events. It was the BJP which had sidelined Kalyan Singh and sacked him. At that time, the SP helped him and gave him due honour."

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His remarks were in response to the state BJP chief asking Yadav whether his "love" for the Muslim vote bank prevented him from visiting the residence of Kalyan Singh, who died at a Lucknow hospital on Saturday after a prolonged illness.

Yadav had condoled Kalyan Singh's death in a tweet on Saturday, but neither he nor any other SP leader went to pay respects to the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister to the latter's Mall Avenue residence here.

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Bhadouria sought to know where was Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and state BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh when Kalyan Singh was sacked by the saffron party.

"Why did they not utter a single word then? They should be ashamed," the SP leader said.

Accusing the ruling party of politicising the issue, he said the SP does not do "politics with feelings".

A Hindutva icon and an OBC leader, Kalyan Singh was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh when the Babri mosque was demolished by "kar sevaks" in Ayodhya in 1992.

His body was kept here for some time before the last rites were performed with full state honours at Bansi Ghat in Bulandshahr's Narora town on Monday.

Attacking Yadav on Twitter, Swatantra Dev Singh had said the SP chief could not travel a distance of barely a kilometre from his residence to Mall Avenue to pay tributes to the departed leader.

"Has the love for the Muslim vote bank stopped him from paying tributes to the biggest leader of the backward class?" he had asked in a tweet in Hindi.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati had gone to pay homage to Kalyan Singh.

Kalyan Singh had earlier allied with SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav after quitting the BJP and launching his own outfit.

The bonhomie, however, lasted only for a brief period.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)