Kushwaha’s wife may get SP ticket for LS polls
LUCKNOW: Jailed former minister Babu Singh Kushwaha’s wife Shivkanya Kushwaha and his brother Shivsharan joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Saturday morning. All supporters of Kushwaha, who is an accused in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission scam, too joined the SP along with the two.
“They have joined the party with the blessings of Netaji (party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav),” said jail minister and SP state spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhary at the press conference he held along with the Kushwahas at the party’s state headquarters in the afternoon.
The joining comes two days after an SC order barred persons lodged in a jail from contesting elections and the day after Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court stayed caste-rallies by political parties.
Though neither the SP nor the Kushwahas talked about any election plans for the latter, there is speculation that the party would field Shivkanya in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election from either Ghazipur or Banda (her hometown) even though the SP has announced candidates for both these seats.
The Kushwahas belong to the other backward classes and constitute nearly 3% or more of the population in about 18 Lok Sabha constituencies in Bundelkhand and eastern UP. These seats include Banda, Mainpuri, Kanpur, Kannauj, Firozabad, Ghazipur, Ballia, or Mau. By joining the SP, the Kushwaha family gets political patronage that they had been lacking since Babu Singh Kushwaha was jailed in March 2012. The family has several business interests, including educational institutions.
“Do they (family members of a jailed politicians) have no right to do social service or join politics,” replied Chowdhary when newspersons asked him if it was not criminalisation of politics.
“We are against criminalisation of politics irrespective of the SC order,” he said. While Shivkanya did not say anything, Shivsharan remarked: “Today, we have come only to join. So I won’t say anything else… would reply to your questions the next time.” Later, amidst a volley of questions, Chowdhary and the Kushwahas abruptly ended the press conference.