Blow to Congress in UP as ex-MP from Pratapgarh Rajkumari Ratna Singh joins BJP

IN YET another setback for the state Congress, senior party leader and former MP from Pratapgarh, Rajkumari Ratna Singh, on Tuesday joined the BJP in the presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a public meeting in the district in the run-up to the Assembly bypoll.

Ratna was elected MP from Pratapgarh Lok Sabha constituency as a Congress candidate three times — in 1996, 1999 and 2009.

Welcoming Ratna Singh into the BJP, the Chief Minister said the Congress, was now “unable to find workers.” He said parties that “promoted politics of caste and nepotism” were today pointing fingers at the development works carried out by the present government.

Ratna belongs to a royal family of Pratapgarh considered close to the Gandhi family for the past three generations. Her father, Dinesh Singh, who served as foreign minister in the Indira Gandhi government, had been elected MP from Pratapgarh for four terms as Congress candidate. Ahead of the recent Lok Sabha elections, AICC general secretary in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had also campaigned for Ratna Singh, who lost to BJP candidate Sangam Lal Gupta, MLA from Pratapgarh Assembly.

It was following Gupta’s election to the Parliament that the seat fell vacant.

While Congress has fielded a young leader, Neeraj Tiwari, from the seat, BJP has picked ally Apna Dal leader Raj Kumar Pal. Apart from Ratna Singh, who was present on the dais to campaign for BJP-Apna Dal joint candidate, former union minister and Apna Dal chief Anupriya Patel was also present on the dais.

Sources in the Congress said Ratna Singh was feeling “sidelined” in the party and also wishes that her son, who was also seen during the CM’s rally Tuesday, should join politics.

In his rally speech, the CM said that apart from promotion of local crop of Aonla in Pratapgarh, his government had also started work on the construction of a medical college in Pratapgarh, a long-pending demand of the people of the region.