Jaunpur battle hots up as Dhananjay’s wife Shrikala throws hat in the ring
LUCKNOW: The battle for Jaunpur Lok Sabha seat has taken an interesting turn with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) reviving the Dhananjay Singh factor.
Despite his recent sentencing by MP/MLA court to seven years in prison, the BSP has placed its faith in his local popularity, nominating his wife Shrikala Dhananjay Singh nee Shrikala Reddy as its candidate from Jaunpur for the 2024 general elections.
Dhananjay Singh has been two-term MLA --from Jaunpur’s Rari assembly seat as an independent and as Janata Dal United candidate from Malhani assembly seat in 2002 and 2007 respectively. He also remained MP between 2009 and 2014 on BSP ticket.
Dhananjay first got married to Meenu Singh in 2008, but she committed suicide in 2009. He
then got married to Dr Jagriti Singh, a medical practitioner, in 2010. Jagriti was arrested for her maid’s murder at her Delhi residence in 2013 while Dhananjay was arrested for concealing evidence in the murder. They got divorced a few months before he married Shrikala Reddy in 2017. People close to Dhananjay said he met Reddy through common friends in Delhi
Shrikala hails from a prominent business family in Telangana and the only daughter of the owners of the Nippon battery group.
She has been actively involved in politics in Jaunpur for the past three years. She ascended to the position of Zila Panchayat chairman in 2021. Notably, her late father, Jitendra Reddy, had a political background, having served as chairman of the Cooperative in Nalgonda and as an independent MLA from Huzur Nagar assembly seat of Nalgonda.
Expressing her gratitude to BSP chief Mayawati for the opportunity, Shrikala embarked on her political journey by seeking blessings at the Gauri Shankar Dham Mahadev temple in Sujanganj. Her candidacy has made Dhananjay Singh’s supporters sit up, as was evident in the sizeable turnout at the temple.
Shrikala now faces formidable opponents in the upcoming elections. The BJP has fielded Kripa Shankar Singh, a former Congress home minister of Maharashtra, while the Samajwadi Party SP has nominated Babu Singh Kushwaha, a former minister in the BSP government. Singh and Kushwaha have played mentorship roles in Dhananjay Singh’s political journey.
Initially eyeing the Jaunpur seat under the JD (U) banner, Dhananjay Singh shifted allegiance to the Samajwadi Party after Kripa Shankar Singh’s BJP candidacy.
However, his plans were disrupted by the court’s verdict, sentencing him and his associate Santosh Vikram Singh in a kidnapping and extortion of the Namami Gange project manager, Abhinav Singhal, in 2020.
Despite setbacks, the decision to nominate Shrikala underscores the BSP’s strategy to capitalise on Dhananjay Singh’s strong influence in Jaunpur.