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Advani flays Kalyan's tirade against PM

Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani today launched an offensive on Kalyan Singh's tirade against Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for his removal as Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

"Mr Kalyan Singh's utterances are extremely irresponsible and factually baseless," Advani told reporters at his North Block office.

To hold Vajpayee solely responsible for his removal is incorrect, Advani said. "In fact it was a unanimous decision of the party stalwarts, to which I was a party."

Asked whether there was any move to initiate disciplinary action against Kalyan Singh, Advani said, "This the party has to decide and I would not like to make any comment."

The home minister said it was wrong for Singh to say he had been given no chance to express his views. "In fact I was the first person to disclose to Mr Singh that there was unanimity in the central leadership of the party about his removal for the past three to four months," he said.

Advani pointed out that Singh himself had described the Lok Sabha verdict in Uttar Pradesh as not a mere defeat but a debacle. After this, when too much of distrust had been generated, the party could ill afford to let him continue.

Advani said the prime minister also invited Singh to the Centre, but he declined the offer.

At this stage the party and people expect him to accept the leadership's decision, he said.

Earlier, party general secretary K N Govindacharya was closeted with the home minister for a brief while.

UNI

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Mulayam makes overtures to Kalyan Singh

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