RAE BARELI: For Dinesh Pratap Singh, the Congress turncoat ready to take on Rahul Gandhi as the BJP candidate in Rae Bareli, “time is an everchanging entity.”
Confident of his victory over the Gandhi scion in his citadel, Singh, hailing from a well-known political family of Rae Bareli, feels it is a thing of the past when the seat was considered a Congress stronghold. “Now the time has changed and so has Rae Bareli. It has turned into a citadel of PM Modi,” he asserts.
At present an MLC and minister in Yogi cabinet, Singh switched over to the saffron brigade from the Congress in September 2018 owing to his political ambitions which he thought won’t be fulfilled as long as he continued to play second fiddle to the Gandhis in Rae Bareli.
However, before switching sides, Singh and his four younger brothers used to be close associates of the Gandhis and their poll managers in Rae Bareli.
Singh’s political journey took a crucial turn when he was chosen by the BJP to contest the 16th Lok Sabha polls against former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in 2019. Despite his defeat, he found solace in securing 38 per cent votes and bringing the victory margin of Sonia Gandhi down to 1.67 lakh votes from 3.52 lakh in 2014.
“The fact is that the Congress has no grassroot leadership in Rae Bareli. I say with responsibility that Sonia Gandhiji may be Rae Bareli MP constitutionally but she could defeat Dinesh Singh in 2019 as she was fighting with the support of four parties—SP, BSP, AAP and Congress. Had she not enjoyed the support of even one of those parties, the BJP candidate would have walked away with the victory certificate.”
He says that unlike the Gandhi family, he has been serving the people of the constituency with dedication.
“In testing times, the Congress MP was never among the people of her constituency during the last five years but when Rahul Gandhi came for nomination she could endure the scorching sun for hours. So why should Rae Bareli not elect its own son instead of relying on others,” he says adding that due to the indifference of the Gandhis, the people of Rae Bareli have realised that they must have their own son as their representative.
Counting on the infrastructural development and roads constructed in Rae Bareli during the last five years, he claims that he is least bothered about the Congress party’s strategy of fielding Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli. “I can see the ‘lotus’ in Rae Bareli. Why will I waste my time unnecessarily in evaluating the Congress strategy. I do not want to indulge in the debate of Rahul Gandhi contesting from Rae Bareli and not Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.”
Over the alleged infighting in the BJP over his candidature from Rae Bareli, he claims full support of the sitting party MLA of Rae Bareli.
“Our cadre and leadership are strong enough to serve a crushing defeat to Rahul Gandhi in Rae Bareli unlike the Congress which imported leaders from other states to make Rahul Gandhi’s nomination a photo op,” he says.
"There is no challenge for me in the 2024 election. I am quite confident of a win as the Congress does not have a presence even in a single assembly constituency of Rae Bareli," he adds.
