Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan slams INDIA ally Congress for fielding leader who ‘supported’ Kathua rape accused
Lok Sabha elections: Chaudhary Lal Singh rejoined the Congress last month, and has been fielded from the Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency of J&K
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday lashed out at INDIA ally Congress for fielding Chaudhary Lal Singh, who allegedly supported the accused in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua in January 2018.
Vijayan alleged that Singh, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader participated in the rally in support of the rape accused.
"This clearly shows that the Congress is not taking a strong stand against the Sangh Parivar," Vijayan was quoted by PTI as saying at a press conference in Malappuram, adding that Rahul Gandhi himself welcomed Singh into the party.
Chaudhary Lal Singh rejoined the Congress last month, and has been fielded from the Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency of the Union territory. He will be contesting elections against Union minister Jitendra Singh.
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He had won from Udhampur twice as a Congress candidate in 2004 and 2009, and later switched over to the BJP in 2014. He was also elected to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly as an MLA in 1996, 2002, and 2015.
Lal Singh had also served as a minister in the previous PDP-BJP coalition government led by Mehbooba Mufti, which collapsed after the saffron party withdrew support in 2018, a year before J&K's special status was scrapped following the abrogation of Article 370.
Several months before the fall of the Mufti government, Singh resigned from the BJP and floated the DSSP following an uproar over his participation in a rally in support of the accused in the rape and murder of the eight-year-old girl in Kathua in January 2018. However, he defended his participation in the rally, stating that he was there to "defuse the situation".
Voting in Udhampur will be held on April 19 in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections. On the other hand, Jammu will vote on April 26, Anantnag-Rajouri on May 7, Srinagar on May 13 and Baramulla on May 20.
(With PTI inputs)