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Dhananjay Singh’s wife’s meeting with Amit Shah creates buzz on Modi’s Jaunpur rally eve
Earlier, Dhananjay Singh, who has considerable influence in Jaunpur, had issued a statement before the local media for his supporters to lend their full support and vote for the BJP.
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Jaunpur on Thursday, former Bahujan Samaj Party MP Dhananjay Singh’s wife Shrikala Reddy Singh’s meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Wednesday has potentially changed the political scenario in Jaunpur.
This meeting has led to speculation of Shrikala Reddy Singh joining the BJP in the presence of the prime minister.
Earlier, Dhananjay Singh, who has considerable influence in Jaunpur, had issued a statement before the local media for his supporters to lend their full support and vote for the BJP.
On Wednesday evening, Shrikala shared a photograph of her meeting Amit Shah from her verified X handle.
She mentioned it as a courtesy meeting with the Union home minister. However, BJP’s Jaunpur district president Pushpendra Singh feigned ignorance about any such development.
Earlier, the BSP fielded Shrikala as its candidate from the Jaunpur Lok Sabha constituency on April 16 against the BJP’s Kripashankar Singh. The BSP cancelled her candidature and made sitting MP Shyam Prasad Yadav its candidate on the last day of nominations on May 5.
It was speculated that Dhananjay Singh had earlier created trouble for Kripashankar Singh by fielding his wife as a BSP candidate and made a win easier for Samajwadi Party candidate Babu Singh Kushwaha, a former minister in the BSP government. But the last-minute change by the BSP appeared to have made things easier for Kripashankar Singh.
Both Kripashankar Singh and Kushwaha have played mentorship roles in Dhananjay Singh’s political journey. Kripashankar Singh, who quit the Congress in 2019 and joined the BJP in 2021, is said to have provided patronage to Dhananjay Singh during his initial days while Kushwaha helped him to get the MP ticket from the BSP.
Dhananjay Singh’s plan to contest from Jaunpur was foiled after he was sentenced to a seven-year jail term on March 6 earlier this year in the case of extortion and kidnapping of a Namami Gange project manager, Abhinav Singhal in 2020. He is currently out of jail after the Allahabad high court granted him bail in the case but refused to quash the lower court’s decision.
