V K SINGH VERSUS SONIA IN RAE BARELI?
The ex-army chief has broached his desire with three top BJP leaders to enter politics and take on the Cong president in her den on party ticket
For mer Army chief general (retired) V K Singh may be pitted by the Bharatiya Janata Party against Congress president Sonia Gandhi from her pocketborough Rae Bareli constituency in the 2014 polls.
He has broached his desire with three top BJP leaders in the last couple of months to enter politics and take on the Congress president in her den on the BJP ticket. Reports say the BJP leaders were excited at a high-voltage contest by fielding the for mer Army chief. He has been assured that he would be suitably accommodated even if he lost the battle to Gandhi.
Singh could not be contacted as he is in the United States for the last two weeks, but sources privy to the development said he was earlier interested in testing electoral waters from his hometown Bhiwani in Haryana, but he felt it was not a winnable seat for him being a Thakur since it is a Jatdominated constituency. He, therefore, decided to contest from Rae Bareli that has a sizeable Thakur population.
Currently part of the anti-corruption campaign of social activist Anna Haz- are, he may lay bare his political intentions around October 11, the birth anniversary of legendary leader Jai Prakash Narayan, who had steered the most effective anti-Congress campaign that led to then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi clamp the emergency in 1975 to fight back.
Sonia Gandhi had won the Rae Bareli seat in the 2009 elections with a victory margin of over 3.72 lakh by polling 4.80 votes while the BJP candidate pitted against her could get only a little over 25,000 votes. The BJP leaders feel the retired general can give the toughest electoral challenge to Sonia Gandhi in her political career and even if he does not win, he would certainly reduce her victory margin substantially.
The BJP is counting on results of the last Assembly elections as the Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in all five segments of the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency, ending up third in Rae Bareli, Sareni, Bachhrawan and Unchahar and second in Harchandpur.