Kalyan Singh, the "Hindu Hriday Simrat" who became the fulcrum for spearheading the BJP’s expansion, passed away Saturday evening in a hospital in Lucknow after a prolonged illness at the age of 89.

Singh, who formed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s first government in the state in 1991, died of sepsis and multi-organ failure at Lucknow’s Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences on Saturday, the hospital said in a statement late at night.

"Former Chief Minister of UP and Ex-Governor of Rajasthan Kalyan Singh Ji breathed his last today. He died due to sepsis and multi-organ failure,” said a statement by the hospital. The BJP veteran was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit on July 4 due to an infection and reduced consciousness level.

His rise in the Bharatiya Janata Party was rapid with its peak marked by the demolition of the Babri Masjid during his tenure as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Singh was elected to the UP Assembly as a Jan Sangh member for the first time in 1967, the same year Mulayam entered the Assembly for the first time as a Socialist Party member. Ten years later, Singh was one of Jan Sangh nominees in the Janata Party government that came to power in Lucknow after the Emergency – and Mulayam his Cabinet colleague.

Expressing his condolences, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “generations to come will remain forever grateful” to Kalyan Singh for his contribution towards India’s “cultural regeneration”. And that he “gave voice to crores of people belonging to the marginalised sections of society”, working for the “empowerment of farmers, youngsters and women”.

I bow down to such a great and ideal life dedicated to the nation, religion and people,” said Home Minister Shah Saturday. “The country and the entire BJP family is mourning his death…the country has lost a true patriot…Babuji was such a huge tree under whose shadow the organisation of BJP flourished and expanded.”

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who rushed to SGPGI soon after Singh’s death, announced a three-day mourning in the state.

“It is an irreparable loss for all of us. We have lost a great leader,” the chief minister said. “The body of the great leader would be taken from the hospital to his Mall Avenue residence and from where on Sunday his body would be kept at the Vidhan Bhawan as well as the UP BJP office,” the CM said.

Recalling Singh’s appointment by the late RSS leader Bhaurao Deoras, former state minister Rajendra Tiwari said, “Deoras told Kalyan to start holding meetings across the state... I remember the late RSS leader telling Kalyan, ataichi uthao aur sabhayein karon .. (pack your suitcase and start visiting the state to hold meetings).”

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