Ranjit sinha’s wife likely to join bjp, may fight Polls
She was supposed to join the BJP on 10 February in Patna.
Reena Narayan Sinha, the wife of former CBI director Ranjit Sinha, is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) soon at its Patna office, a Patna-based party source told The Sunday Guardian. The joining was expected to happen on 10 February, but it was postponed at the last moment.
Earlier, in March 2014, she had filed an application to contest the general elections from Patna as an Independent candidate, but her application was rejected as it was not filed within the time deadline of 3 pm.
A Patna-based party source said that the decision to take Reena Sinha was taken at the party leadership level in Delhi, while offering no official comment on the development. The Sunday Guardian reached out to Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai seeking his view on the development, but he shared no response. In 2012, when Sinha was appointed the CBI chief, the BJP, which was in Opposition at the time, had vehemently opposed his appointment.
Sinha, who retired as the CBI director in December 2014, is facing a CBI inquiry that was ordered against him by the Supreme Court in 2017, to examine to what extent had Ranjit Sinha abused his position to “scuttle” investigation and prosecution in the coal scam. Following this, the agency had filed an FIR against the Bihar cadre officer in April 2017.
At the time, the Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A.K. Sikri had said, “A prima facie case has definitely been made out for an investigation into the abuse of authority by Ranjit Sinha in terms of the report.” The Supreme Court’s observation was based on a report submitted by former CBI Special Director M.L. Sharma, appointed by the Supreme Court to verify whether a prima facie case was made out to probe whether Ranjit Sinha “scuttled” investigation and prosecution of the accused who visited his house. Later, in November 2018, the Supreme Court asked the CBI’S Special Investigation Team (SIT) to file a fresh status report, giving details of the probe into the charges after it observed that the agency was going “slow”.
Reena Sinha, who has worked as a principal in a government school in Patna, is likely to seek a party ticket from the Patna Sahib seat, which is presently held by disgruntled BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha. Shatrughan, who has been at loggerheads with the party leadership ever since the NDA came to power in 2014, will not be given a ticket this time and the party is looking for new faces for the seat. Apart from Reena Sinha, those who are in the fray for a ticket from the Patna Sahib seat includes Rituraj Sinha, son of BJP Rajya Sabha MP R.K. Sinha, and Ranbeer Nandan, national treasurer of Janata Dal (United), who, too, has expressed his strong desire at the party forum to contest from the seat which is dominated by voters of the Kayastha community. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may have assumed office—literally, she will be occupying her brother’s old office that he had as party vice president—at 24 Akbar Road, but due to security considerations she will not be sitting there daily. However, party sources rule out her contesting the Lok Sabha this year, stating that she would instead be handling the entire eastern Uttar Pradesh charge, comprising 40 Lok Sabha seats that have been handed to her. In a recent interview to a national newspaper, the Congress president indicated that Priyanka could be campaigning in other states as well. Hence, if her prime role is to build the organisation and motivate the cadre, one wonders why she wasn’t handed Ashok Gehlot’s old job of being general secretary in charge of the party organisation, instead of the eastern UP portfolio? Instead, it is the not so inspiring K.C. Venugopal who was handed over Gehlot’s old job.