RAE BARELI: BJP candidate from the Rae Bareli Sadar seat Aditi Singh on Wednesday targeted Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra over denial of ticket to her MLA husband, Angad Saini, in Punjab and alleged there was pressure on him to speak out against her.
Describing herself as a "bina baap ki beti", the BJP nominee, who has recently switched over from the Congress, also alleged that she had faced harassment for fighting for justice.
Although Aditi Singh had won the seat as a Congress candidate in the 2017 assembly elections, she has been openly speaking in favour of the BJP government in the state.
Recently, she switched sides and was fielded by the BJP from the same seat. She filed her nomination on Wednesday. Singh has also dared Priyanka Gandhi to contest the assembly polls from Rae Bareli.
Allegedly following her switching parties, Aditi Singh's husband and Nawanshahr (Punjab) Congress MLA Angad Saini was denied a ticket, and on Monday, he filed his nomination as an Independent candidate from the seat.
"My husband's ticket has been denied by her, there is no logic behind it. There are many examples of members of a family or husband and wife who have been in different parties. If she considers a woman's self-respect important, then can a woman not have a separate ideology? My ideology does not match with the Congress, but Angadji's does," Aditi Singh told news persons after filing her papers here.
"Are we so suppressed that we have to walk behind our husbands? Is this what she is implying? Her politics is totally 'dogali' (double-sided)," Singh said, targeting Gandhi.
"She calls herself the daughter of Rae Bareli, her family has fought Parliamentary polls and won, and here a girl without a father is fighting for justice and yet, she is harassing so much. Mentally harassed my family, exerted pressure on my husband to speak against me," Aditi Singh alleged.
"If she is so serious about women empowerment, why has she fielded so few women candidates in Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa. Here she is giving 40 per cent tickets to women knowing fully well that there will be no impact on the party here," the BJP candidate said.
Terming development and security of her electorate as the main issues, Aditi Singh said that in her constituency, which had earlier been represented by her late father Akhilesh Singh, "There has never been any extortion, realisation of goonda tax or land encroachment, and my target is to keep it alive. I get votes of people belonging to all castes and religions because I work for all sections of the society."
There was no immediate comment by the Congress.