After Shivpal, Raja Bhaiya set to float new party

ALLAHABAD::The 49-year-old MLA from Kunda and a former cabinet minister in the Uttar Pradesh government, Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, is in the news again over reported attempts to form his own political party before the forthcoming parliamentary polls of 2019.

Though Raja Bhaiya is maintaining silence over speculations and asking every curious inquirer to wait just a little longer, there are reports that two of his close confidantes, MLC Akshay Pratap Singh Gopal, have already submitted an application to the Election Commission of India in New Delhi, on behalf of Raja Bhaiya.

People close to the six-time MLA from Kunda seat of Pratapgarh district claim that Raja Bhaiya has proposed three names to the Election Commission including his first choice of Jansatta Dal/Party.

They even claim that if all goes to plan, a formal announcement could come as early as in the next few days itself.

Later, a grand rally could be held in the state capital or Pratapgarh on November 30, the day when Raja Bhaiyya completes 25 years in politics, they add.

Raja Bhaiya has always been an independent MLA, winning the Kunda seat in 1993, 1996, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017.

The decision to form a new party has been taken by Raja Bhaiya reportedly after a positive feedback from different sections of society from 25 districts, asking people’s views on whether he should continue to contest as an Independent, join some party formally or form his own party.

“Having good support among the Thakurs and the Rajpoot voters, Raja Bhaiya could get the support of the swarn or upper castes from various belts where they are in good numbers. His party being formed soon after SP’s sidelined leader Shivpal Singh Yadav’s forming Samajwadi Secular Morcha could cut into the vote bank of the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP and end up benefiting the BJP,” said noted political analyst and director of GB Pant Social Science Institute Prof Badri Narayan.

Hailing from the Bhadri estate, his father– Uday Pratap Singh ‘Bhadri’– is an alumnus of Doon School and is seen as a hardcore Hindu. Raja Bhaiya’s first brush with governance came about when rebels from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) helped form a BJP-led government in Uttar Pradesh under Kalyan Singh in

1997.