Pratapgarh’s royal daughter dumps her Congress past
LUCKNOW: Till late Monday night, an influential Congress leader from Pratapgarh was desperately trying to stall the crossover of Rajkumari Ratna Singh, 60, a three-time Congress MP, to the BJP.
But the midnight efforts failed on Tuesday as the erstwhile royalty from Pratapgarh’s Kalakankar estate, who worships the Ganga and rarely steps out of her Kalakankar palace without her head covered and a pistol firmly in place, came on the BJP political stage along with her son Bhumanyu, praising chief minister Yogi Adityanath profusely and pledging her loyalty to the BJP.
“Thank you for giving me and my son this opportunity. I am Pratapgarh’s daughter who will serve the BJP now,” she told the chief minister who was there to address a political rally for Pratapgarh by-poll candidate. Ratna Singh is the daughter of Dinesh Singh, a four-time MP from the region who was a minister in both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi governments. Her grandfather and great grandfather too had had a close association with the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Her shift to BJP follows close on heels of Rakesh Singh and Aditi Singh, the two Congress lawmakers from Rae Bareli, embarrassing their party recently -- with Rakesh openly praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Aditi defying her party line to stay away from the special assembly session convened recently by the Yogi Adityanath government to discuss sustainable development goals (SDGs). Rae Bareli is the Lok Sabha constituency of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and is the lone surviving Congress bastion in UP.
In Amethi too, the BJP jolted the Congress further by getting into party fold influential leaders Sanjay Sinh and Ameeta Sinh, considered close to the Gandhi family. For Congress leaders in Pratapgarh, Ratna Singh’s shift to the BJP was one development they tried hard to stall in vain.
“That’s because her shift would impact politics of the region beyond the Pratapgarh by-polls. The fact that she pointedly referred to Bhumanyu from the stage, means in 2022 by-polls he could certainly be a contender for a BJP ticket. And when that happens, it would surely cause worries for the Congress,” a Pratapgarh BJP leader said.
The crossover of widely travelled Ratna Singh, who knows horse riding and once played squash, was kept a closely guarded affair by the BJP for they were aware of attempts by the Congress to persuade her against it. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had campaigned for Ratna Singh in Pratapgarh. BJP leaders say that
Ratna Singh was seen campaigning for the Congress candidate even in the Pratapgarh by-poll, which made her joining the BJP all the more embarrassing.
For the moment, her shift could provide a psychological boost to the BJP in Pratapgarh where it has fielded its candidate on ally Apna Dal’s ticket, a development that local leadership of both parties didn’t appear happy with.
“Our candidate in Pratapgarh was doing well until now but let’s see what happens now as the BJP has begun playing its dirty games,” a Congress leader said.
Congress’s new state chief Ajay Kumar ‘Lallu’ said the party was in midst of a revamp and anyone was free to take their decisions.