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Dropped from Sarojininagar, BJP’s Swati Singh denies party switch plan
UP minister Swati Singh said she was not unhappy and will live in BJP and die here and continue to work for the cause of women
A day after she was dropped as BJP candidate from Sarojininagar assembly seat in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh minister Swati Singh denied that she was headed to the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP).
Swati’s comments came soon after the state’s main opposition party, SP, which had held back declaring a candidate on Swati’s assembly seat, announced the party’s Brahmin face Abhishek Mishra as candidate against BJP’s Rajeshwar Singh, former joint director of the enforcement directorate, who took voluntary retirement.
The buzz was that the SP had held back the declaration for this seat anticipating a possible rebellion by Swati Singh or her husband, a UP BJP functionary, Daya Shankar Singh, who, too, was lobbying for a ticket from the seat, his wife represents at present.
“I too had heard so. But let me tell you that I had been associated with the BJP and ABVP since my student days. I will live in the BJP and I will die here. I will always work for the cause of women,” she said while speaking to some journalists here on Wednesday.
“I am not unhappy as I didn’t know in 2017 that I will be the women’s wing chief, then MLA and then minister. The party chooses best but there is no question of being unhappy as I am sure the party may be having some plan for me,” she said.
She parried all queries on Daya Shankar, deflecting them with cleverly worded, one liners with a smile like ‘aap chahte kya hain (what do you want?), “toh aapko masala chahiye tha .. (so you wanted some gossipy tidbit)” and “mere chehrey se kya aapko koi narazgi dikh rahi hai (does my face reflect any anger).”
“Why don’t you ask queries that relate to Daya Shankar ji from him directly,” she said.
In 2016, after Daya Shankar was suspended from the party following an objectionable remark on BSP chief Mayawati, Swati rose politically after the then BSP leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui made an equally objectionable remark against Daya Shankar’s wife and children, which led to the BJP launching a counter agitation with the tagline ‘beti ke samman main bhajapa maidan main (BJP fighting for women’s honour). Swati was soon made the women’s wing chief of UP BJP and subsequently fielded from Sarojininagar assembly seat and she opened the account for the BJP on the seat.
Daya Shankar, who was later re-instated, has been a key BJP leader, who joined politics after a successful stint as a student leader of Lucknow University Students’ Union (LUSU) and as the present UP BJP vice president and member of the committee to vet new joining, been instrumental in getting key opposition faces to join the BJP.
Party sources indicated that the BJP could give Daya Shankar a ticket from Ballia assembly seat, from where he had contested in 2012, and would accommodate Swati in some capacity or the other, too.
“All depends on the result. But she can be accommodated anywhere, as an MLC or as some party functionary,” a BJP leader said.
Like Swati, Daya Shankar also, in a separate interaction, welcomed the fielding of former IPS officer Rajeshwar Singh from Sarojininagar seat.
“I think the party has made a great choice because he has some great successes in busting scams to his credit,” Daya Shankar said adding that he would strive for Rajeshwar’s win.
