BJP REPLACES UNNAO CANDIDATE AFTER RAPE SURVIVOR’S APPEAL
In the evening, BJP’s Unnao unit issued a statement that the candidature of Arun Singh was cancelled and Shakun Singh would be candidate in his place
LUCKNOW/KANPUR: Hours after declaring Arun Singh as its candidate for the zila panchayat chairperson’s post from Unnao, the ruling BJP replaced him with the wife of a former party lawmaker after the Unnao gang rape survivor alleged that Singh was close to former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar who was convicted of raping her in 2017 and hatching a conspiracy to murder her father in 2018.
Former BJP MLC Ajeet Singh’s wife Shakun Singh was hurriedly named as the new party candidate after the UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh ordered Unnao district BJP chief Raj Kishore Rawat to replace Arun Singh, a former block pramukh. The rape survivor has thanked the PM and the CM for instantly dropping Arun Singh’s name as candidate for chairmanship.
LUCKNOW/KANPUR: Hours after declaring Arun Singh as its candidate for the zila panchayat chairperson’s post from Unnao, the ruling BJP replaced him with the wife of a former party lawmaker after the Unnao gang rape survivor alleged that Singh was close to former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar who was convicted of raping her in 2017 and hatching a conspiracy to murder her father in 2018.
Former BJP MLC Ajeet Singh’s wife Shakun Singh was hurriedly named as the new party candidate after the UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh ordered Unnao district BJP chief Raj Kishore Rawat to replace Arun Singh, a former block pramukh.
“I was asked by the party’s state leadership to change the candidate and I have complied. That’s all I can say,” Rawat said.
In the evening, the BJP’s Unnao unit issued a statement that the candidature of Arun Singh was cancelled and Shakun Singh would be the candidate in his place.
The rape survivor has thanked the prime minister and the chief minister for instantly dropping Arun Singh’s name as candidate for chairmanship.
Rawat had declared on Wednesday night itself that Arun Singh would be the party’s candidate for the zila panchayat chairperson’s post from Unnao.
Arun Singh is the son-in-law of Uttar Pradesh minister Ranvendra Pratap Singh.
After the announcement,
Arun Singh had even come to the district BJP office where he was felicitated by some party workers on Thursday. But the scenario changed quickly afterwards when the Unnao rape survivor posted videos of her appeal to the BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and wrote to chief minister Yogi Adityanath, demanding withdrawal of Arun’s ticket.
Arun Singh, she said, was one of the co-accused in the case registered in connection with the accident involving her car on July 28, 2019, in which her two aunts were killed while she and her lawyer were critically injured.
The CBI had investigated the Unnao rape and murder case as well as the case of the survivor’s
car accident.
Arun Singh claimed he was being framed and said the CBI had given him a clean chit. He said he would write to the state government against those who had dragged his name into the controversy. The BJP had in April replaced Kuldeep Sengar’s wife Sangeeta as the party candidate for the zila panchayat ward member 22 after a similar uproar against her candidature.
On Thursday, shortly before UP BJP chief ordered the Unnao district unit to replace Arun, the state’s deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had given a hint of the party decision.
“I think the party would be taking an appropriate decision,” Maurya had said in Mirzapur where he had gone on a day’s
visit.
Earlier, in a viral video, the rape survivor had alleged that local BJP functionaries were supporting those who were plotting to eliminate her.
She had said that her complaints against her abuse were not acted upon by the police due to the influence of Kuldeep, a four-time lawmaker.
Kuldeep Sengar was convicted of raping the then 17-year-old girl on June 4, 2017, in Unnao. He was sentenced to life in jail by a Delhi court in December 2019.
In March 2020, a special court sentenced Sengar, his brother Atul Singh and five others to 10 years’ imprisonment in two cases linked to the death of the Unnao rape victim’s father in 2018.
Kuldeep Sengar was expelled from the BJP and disqualified as member of state assembly after the trial court convicted him.
Meanwhile Shakun Singh, the new BJP candidate from Unnao, thanked the party for her nomination. “I am grateful to the leadership,” she said.
Shakun was recently elected zila panchayat member from ward number 22 of Unnao and has now been named candidate for the zila panchayat chairperson.
Shakun Singh is the widow of former MLC Ajeet Singh who was killed in mysterious circumstances by his gunner in Unnao nearly 17 years ago in 2004.
The election for the zila panchayat chairperson would be held on July 3.