BJP sets eyes on Rae Bareli, speculation about Aditi Singh

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has now set its eyes on the next target, Rae Bareli, the parliamentary constituency of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

The BJP had fielded former Congress Legislative Council member Dinesh Pratap Singh against Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareli in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year.

Now there is speculation that the two Congress legislators from Rae Bareli, Aditi Singh and Rakesh Singh, are planning to join hands with the BJP.

This is not the first time that Aditi Singh has embarrassed the Congress. She earlier openly came out in support of the abrogation of Article 370 granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Just a couple of days back Aditi Singh attended the 36-hour Assembly session organised by the Adityanath government to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. All opposition parties including the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Samajwadi Party (SP) boycotted the special Vidhan Sabha session but Aditi Singh was the first opposition legislator to attend the session on October 2.

Singh not only attended the Assembly session, but gave a speech in which she sang paeans to Chief Minister Adityanath and the state government. She also absented herself from Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's march in Lucknow on the same day.

Incidentally, it was Priyanka who had brought Aditi into politics.

Aditi has now been given 'Y' category security by the Yogi Adityanath government. There are strong rumours that BJP might be the new home of Singh.

Singh told , "I thought that as an MLA from Rae Bareli, I should participate on the issue of development and in national subjects. The public has sent me to the House after believing in me. I have talked about the country's interests in my speech. I am here for the country's development."

On the question of joining the BJP, she said that politics is a game of possibilities, but nothing as such right now.

Political analyst Ratanmani Lal said, "After Aditi Singh's father passed away, his political opponents began to weaken Singh and her career was declining."

Singh was elected MLA on a Congress ticket for the first time from Rae Bareli Sadar. Her father Akhilesh Singh had also been an MLA several times. Chief Minister Adityanath visited Akhilesh Singh's residence in Rae Bareli to mourn his death; since then Aditi's attitude has been changing.

Akhilesh Singh was a popular leader in Rae Bareli and won his seat even as an Independent after he left Congress. He was a five-term MLA, and had decided to hand over his legacy to his daughter after he was diagnosed with cancer.

( With inputs from IANS )