President, PM pay tributes to BJP veteran Kalyan Singh

President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among the BJP top leadership who paid tributes to Kalyan Singh who passed away on Saturday night.

"He was named Kalyan Singh and he devoted his entire life for 'Jan Kalyan'. He was synonymous with faith and commitment in politics and spent largest part of his life working for the welfare of people," Modi said in Lucknow.

President Ram Nath Kovind said that the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister had a magical connect with the masses.

The President said, "As the Chief Minister of UP, he determinedly pursued clean politics and purged governance of criminals and corruption."

Kalyan Singh died due to sepsis and multi-organ failure in Lucknow at the age of 89. The two-term Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh also served as the Governor of Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

Singh first became an MLA in 1967. Since then, he won the assembly polls several times, held important posts in the BJP and was appointed Rajasthan Governor in the last phase of his public life.

In 1991, Kalyan Singh was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh when a massive crowd of Hindutva activists razed Babri Masjid on December 6. Just hours after the demolition, Singh quit as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier in the morning, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati also reached the former chief minister's residence and paid floral tributes to the departed soul.

The cremation will take place at Narora Ghat in Bulandshahr on Monday.