In Lucknow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays his tribute to former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh

LUCKNOW: Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid his respects to Kalyan Singh, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, on Sunday.Singh, who had been ill for some time, died on Saturday night at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) in Lucknow. He was 89 years old at the time.

We’ve lost a strong leader. We should make every attempt to compensate for him by using his principles and resolutions; we should leave no stone unturned in realising his ambitions. “I pray to Lord Ram for a place alongside him for Kalyan Singh and strength for his family to withstand this agony,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

 On July 4, the veteran BJP leader, who also served as the governor of Rajasthan, was admitted to the SGPGI’s Intensive Care Unit in a severe condition. According to the hospital, he died of sepsis and multi-organ failure.Thousands of people paid tribute to the prominent backward caste leader, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi praising the two-time Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s “indelible contribution” to the state’s prosperity and India’s “cultural regeneration.”

On Monday, when the former chief minister’s last rituals are performed, Uttar Pradesh has declared three days of mourning and a holiday.

When the Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished by a mob of “karsevaks” on December 6, 1992, Singh was the Uttar Pradesh chief minister. He was one of 32 people acquitted in the demolition case in September last year, alongside BJP heavyweights L K Advani and M M Joshi.

Singh, a Lodhi leader, was a key figure in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ascension to power in Uttar Pradesh in the 1990s.

Singh is survived by his wife Ramvati Devi, son Rajveer Singh, a Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Etah, and grandson Sandeep Singh, the Uttar Pradesh Minister of State for Finance, Technical Education, and Medical Education.