LUCKNOW: Benching Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh , the sitting MP from the Kaiserganj Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party( BJP) fielded his younger son Karan Bhushan in his place on Thursday.
Additionally, the party nominated Dinesh Pratap Singh, currently serving as a minister in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet in Uttar Pradesh, to contest from Raebareli for the second time.
Significantly, in a much-awaited development, the ruling party ended the suspense by naming Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh ’s younger son Karan in his place from Kaiserganj as Brij Bhushan is carrying the taint of sexual exploitation of female wrestlers during his tenure as the chairman of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).
The sitting BJP MP is facing the legal proceeding over the charges following a prolonged protest by the ace wrestlers of the country. However, he extended his gratitude to the party for fielding his son who will file papers on May 3rd.
By denying ticket to Brij Bhushan, the BJP has sought to send out a message of distancing itself from tainted leader.
However, this time, the Congress party has yet to open its cards both in Rae Bareli and Amethi, the two pocket boroughs of the Gandhis in Uttar Pradesh.
With Brij Bhushan, the total number of MPs benched by the BJP in the ensuing election has gone to 15 in UP.
Singh, a six-time MP, has been victorious not only in Kaiserganj (in 2009, 2014, and 2019) but also in neighboring constituencies such as Gonda (in 1991 and 1999) and Balrampur (in 2004). He wields significant influence over half a dozen Lok Sabha seats in and around Gonda in central UP.
He holds considerable sway in Kaiserganj and the surrounding districts due to his ownership of over 50 educational institutions in the region.
Notably, Singh had been pitching hard for his own candidature while the BJP had given him the options of fielding either his wife Ketaki Singh or son Prateek, an MLA from Gonda Sadar.
Ketaki Singh has been BJP’s Gonda MP in 1996.
The BJP brass had been treading cautiously over Singh’s candidature to avert the opposition attack.
On the other, the candidature of Dinesh Pratap Singh, the BJP MLC and minister of state with independent charge in Yogi cabinet, assumes significance as he had contested against former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli in 2019 also.
He had lost the seat to Sonia Gandhi by a margin of 1.67 lakh votes which was much down from Sonia’s victory margin of over 3.52 lakh in 2014.
The fight in Rae Bareli has turned out to be very crucial for the Congress party this time as Sonia Gandhi has withdrawn from electoral politics on health grounds and has chosen the Rajya Sabha route of Rajasthan to retain her presence in Parliament.
As per the sources, the BJP placed reliance on Dinesh Pratap Singh's local connections with grassroots functionaries, particularly at the gram and block levels in Rae Bareli.
Before joining the BJP in September 2018, Dinesh Pratap used to be the main strategist of the elections of Gandhi family in Rae Bareli.
Heading an influential Thakur family of Rae Bareli, Dinesh Pratap Singh’s two brothers -- Awdhesh Pratap Singh, the Zila Panchayat chairman and Rakesh Pratap Singh, ex-MLA from Harchandpur assembly segment, are established politicians of Rae Bareli.
After losing the 2019 election to Sonia Gandhi, Dinesh Pratap Singh was made MLC and a minister in Yogi cabinet 2.0 in 2022.
Sources claim that in anticipation of receiving the ticket, Dinesh Pratap Singh had already hit the ground and had been holding meetings with different sections within the constituency for the past several days.
With the announcement of Dinesh Singh and Karan Bhushan Singh, BJP has tried to placate the Rajput community as well.
The party, in all, has fielded 13 Rajput candidates across UP including Sarvesh Singh (Moradabad-- he recently passed away), Vishwadeep Singh (Firozabad), Jaiveer Singh (Mainpuri), Rajnath Singh (Lucknow), Devendra Singh (Akbarpur), Pushpendra Singh Chandel (Hamirpur), Lallu Singh (Ayodhya), Kirti Vardhan Singh (Gonda), Jagdambika Pal (Domariyaganj), Neeraj Shekhar (Ballia), Kripa Shankar Singh (Jaunpur). Thus the BJP has named its candidates on all 75 seats it is contesting in UP.
Its ally, Apna Dal (S), however, is yet to announce its candidate in Robertsganj represented by its sitting MP Pakauri Lal Kol. Ret of two seats have been given to RLD and one to OP Rajbhar’s SBSP.
