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RAEBARELI/LUCKNOW : After BJP’s rally in the Congress bastion Rae Bareli on Saturday, both the parties have geared up for control of this key constituency.
Hitting back at the BJP, the Congress distributed sweets to celebrate its MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh joining the BJP even as its other MLC Deepak Singh said the party would press for Dinesh’s disqualification for violating the anti-defection law.
“Good riddance. Look we are distributing sweets,” said Rae Bareli Congress president VK Shukla on Dinesh joining the BJP at Tilak Bhawan, the party office here.
The BJP, however, looked unperturbed. This is possible because in Dinesh it sees an opportunity to rattle the Congress in Rae Bareli, its bastion since 1952.
In fact after Rae Bareli, Shah flew to Lucknow to meet party leaders at the UP BJP office where he and chief minister Yogi Adityanath were joined by deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who was conspicuous by his absence at the Rae Bareli rally.
“It was an important meeting for both the party and the government. The focus was on the Congress mukt Bharat campaign. Now, Amethi and Rae Bareli too need to be free of the Congress,” Maurya said after the meeting underlining Shah’s plan to fight the Congress in its bastions.
There is speculation that Shah discussed the expected cabinet expansion of the Yogi government with BJP leaders in UP. Maurya refused to talk on the subject, saying ministry expansion was the sole prerogative of the chief minister and he won’t comment.
But in Rae Bareli the buzz is that Dinesh, a known party hopper, or any of his family members could get to take on the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Though likely, the plan is still awaiting Shah’s formal clearance, BJP leaders said. The other possibility is Dinesh being rewarded with a ministerial berth in the next ministry expansion, BJP leaders said.
“Ahead of his joining he had told the people that Rae Bareli would get a cabinet minister, apparently indicating the clout he wields in the current BJP government owing to his political hold in this Congress bastion,” a BJP leader said.
The fact that Shah and Adityanath were accompanied by nearly half-a-dozen ministers to the Rae Bareli rally on Saturday organised by Dinesh indicates his growing political muscle, party leaders said.
Supreme Court lawyer Ajay Aggarwal, who had contested against Sonia Gandhi in 2014, said, “Right from AIIMS, whose OPD is to start from July to expansion of Rail coach factory, ITI, we are busy developing Rae Bareli, something which Congress couldn’t do.”
The Congress has responded by activating its Rae Bareli MLA Aditi Singh to target Yogi government on the law and order situation by citing the Etah rape horror.Aditi visited Etah to meet rape victim’s family and later went on to meet additional distirct magistrate Dharmednra Singh and SSP Akhilesh Kumar Chaurasia. “The law and order situation in the state is out of control and crimes against women are on a all time high. The BJP government has failed the people of the state and also they have failed in living upto their promises made during the elections,” she said.
THERE IS SPECULATION THAT SHAH DISCUSSED THE EXPECTED CABINET EXPANSION OF THE YOGI GOVERNMENT WITH BJP LEADERS IN UP