Former chief of Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) Sunil Singh, who was once considered close to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, joined the Samajwadi Party with hundreds of his supporters in Lucknow on Saturday in the presence of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and the party’s patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Singh who was ousted from the HYV ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections, had become increasingly bitter after parting ways with his ex-boss Adityanath. At his induction function, he merged his Hindu Yuva Vahini (Bharat) that he had floated, into the Samajwadi Party and lashed out at Adityanath.
“The BJP and Yogi Adityanath misled and deceived the youth by saffron flags and saffron robes,” he said.
Sunil Singh had once likened his relationship with Adityanath to that Ram and Hanuman’s. On Saturday he replaced Adityanath with Akhilesh Yadav in that relationship with a dramatic announcement, “Akhilesh Yadav ji you pick up the grand bow to annihilate the BJP government and I will be with you like Hanuman.”
Ahead of the 2017 UP Assembly elections, Sunil wanted a BJP ticket to contest the polls from one of the Gorakhpur seats. But the BJP denied him a ticket. The relationship soured between Yogi and Sunil over the issue and he turned a rebel. Eventually, Yogi expelled him from HYV which he had founded in 2002 to promote “Hindutva and nationalism”..
Sunil Singh allegedly threatened some leaders of the HYV over which he the police booked him under National Security Act (NSA) in 2018 and he spent some time in jail. Sunil Singh is from Gorakhpur. Sunil eventually floated a parallel Hindu Yuva Vahini (Bharat).
{{/usCountry}}Sunil Singh allegedly threatened some leaders of the HYV over which he the police booked him under National Security Act (NSA) in 2018 and he spent some time in jail. Sunil Singh is from Gorakhpur. Sunil eventually floated a parallel Hindu Yuva Vahini (Bharat).
{{/usCountry}}On Saturday, Singh pledged to make Akhilesh the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2022.
“I welcome Sunil Singh into the party. And I hope my neighbour (Yogi Adityanath) has heard what Sunil Singh just said in a loud voice. (Samajwadi Party office is in the neighbourhood of CM’s residence),” Akhilesh said.
The SP chief claimed that the countdown to Adityanath’s exit has begun and that his time was running out.
“The government had sent him (Sunil Singh) to jail. Now the Hindu Vahini people will send him (Yogi) back to where he came from,” he said.
“Now I have more time. He has less. His time is running out. And more and more people are waiting to join Samajwadi Party”, Akhilesh claimed.