BJP inducts ex-BSP MLA accused of arson at its MP Rita Joshi's house

LUCKNOW: In a surprising development, the BJP on Wednesday inducted former BSP MLA from Bikapur assembly seat in Ayodhya, Jitendra Singh Babloo, who has been one of the prime accused in the case involving arson and setting the house of the then UP Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi --- now a BJP MP – on fire in 2009.
Babloo joined the saffron outfit in the presence of UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh and other senior state leaders at the party state headquarters in Lucknow. Soon after joining the BJP, Babloo claimed that the charges framed against him in the arson case were false and fabricated. “I was not even present at the site when the incident happened,” he told reporters. Babloo said that he has been demanding a CB-CID inquiry into the case
Reacting to the development, incumbent UPCC chief Ajay Kumar Lallu said: "Rita Joshi ji will be able to comment better on Babloo’s induction in BJP…She too is in BJP.”
The arson incident took place in July 2009 when a group of masked men attacked the house of Joshi in Lucknow with iron rods and then set it on fire. The incident came in the backdrop of an uncharitable comment of Joshi about BSP supremo Mayawati vis-à-vis rape victims. Babloo and another BSP leader Intezar Abidi were named as accused in the case.
Babloo was elected as BSP MLA from Bikapur in Ayodhya in 2007 UP assembly elections which saw Mayawati forming the government with an absolute majority for the first time. He had then defeated SP’s Sita Ram Nishad of SP. Babloo was, however, denied a ticket by Mayawati in 2012 assembly elections, following which he switched over to Peace Party. Earlier, even as Mayawati expelled him, he got disqualified from UP assembly under anti-defection law.
His political fortunes, however, started dipping and in 2012 assembly elections, Babloo contested as a Peace Party candidate but slipped to fourth position, losing his seat to SP’s strongman, Mitra Sen Yadav. Mayawati took Babloo back in the party fold and fielded him from Bikapur in the 2017 UP assembly elections. He, however, lost to BJP’s Shobha Singh Chauhan by a margin of over 44,000 votes. Ever since, he has been lying in political oblivion.
The induction of Jitendra Singh has brought the spotlight back on BJP’s attempt to reach out to the Thakur community which accounts for around 7% of the total electorate. This comes even as the opposition, mainly the SP and the BSP step up efforts to woo the Brahmins to take on the BJP. Party sources said that the induction of Jitendra into BJP was planned considering his influence in Ayodhya, which also happens to be the nerve centre of Hindutva politics. BJP suffered electoral losses in Ayodhya during Zila Panchayat member elections held recently.