Kalyan on par with Vajpayee, Advani: Uma

A grateful Uma Bharti Friday equated Bharatiya Janata Party Vice-President Kalyan Singh's stature with that of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and senior party leader Lal Kishenchand Advani, a day after Singh described her as his young sister and a mass leader.

"Kalyan Singh is a leader of Vajpayee and Advani's stature. I am too small that he joins me. I keep taking his blessings. I am grateful that he still remains affectionate towards me.

He is very bold and courageous and never hesitates from speaking the truth," she told reporters in New Delhi when asked whether he will join her proposed party.

Asked about his fulsome praise for her, she said, "I am like his daughter. He was the best Chief Minister Uttar Pradesh has had in four decades.

I cannot say the same about 1996-97 (when new BJP chief Rajnath Singh was the Chief Minister)."

Both Bharati and Singh belong to the backward Lodh caste. Taking exception to the manner in which he was earlier removed from the party, she said, "His return has neither benefited the party nor him."

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also backed her demand for OBC and Dalit quotas within the proposed 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures.

In a television interview on Wednesday, Singh had described Bharti as an "emotional girl" and said her recent Bhopal to Ayodhya Ram-Roti yatra has proved that "she is a mass leader."