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Unnao rape survivor’s mother promises to fight for women
Asha Singh, 56, who is the mother of the girl raped by former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, is the Congress’s candidate for the Unnao Sadar assembly constituency.
Asha Singh has just returned from a long day of campaigning. Her daughters massage her feet as she says: “This pain is nothing compared to the five-year ordeal and our struggle for justice. I am in the fray so the women of my area do not have to face oppression and injustice like we did.”
The 56-year-old, who is the mother of the girl raped by former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, is the Congress’s candidate for the Unnao Sadar assembly constituency.
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Each day, Singh sets off on foot from village to village to canvass for votes in the region. Accompanied by a small group of 5-6 people, her campaign lacks the high-pitched extravagance usually seen during electioneering.
The rape survivor, now 21, and her sister, both don pink bands inscribed with the Congress’s election motto ‘Ladki Hoon Lad Sakti Hoon’. They accompany Singh on the campaign trail, asking the people to vote for the safety of women.
The rape case and subsequent death of the survivor’s father after made national headlines in 2017.
The survivor was 17 when Sengar raped her on June 4, 2017. She struggled over a year to get an FIR lodged against Sengar to no avail. On April 3, 2018, her father was arrested in an Arms Act case and reportedly assaulted in custody. He died six days later of internal injuries, prompting the survivor to attempt self-immolation outside the residence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
As the case caused a huge uproar, the Allahabad high court referred it to the CBI on April 10. Sengar was arrested three days later.
Within 11 days of a submission before the then chief justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, that the survivor and her family faced a threat to their lives, a truck rammed into her car in Rae Bareli on July 28, 2019 killing two of her aunts and critically injuring her. Sengar was convicted by a Delhi court in five criminal cases on December 16, 2019.
The family says that even now, support for Singh’s candidacy is muted as people fear a backlash from Sengar.
At least 60,000 upper caste Thakurs are among voters of the Unnao Sadar seat. Sengar once represented this seat as a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA. Sengar became an MLA for the first time in 2002 on the BSP ticket, then joined SP in 2007 and contested Bangarmau seat in 2007 and Bhagwant Nagar in 2012. He joined the BJP ahead of 2017 assembly polls and won Bhagwant Nagar seat.
Despite zero experience in running a political campaign, the family run their campaign from a rented house in another part of the region-- away from their thatched house in Makhi. The family lives on the first floor. The room on the second floor is for the survivor’s security personnel and the one on the ground floor functions as their central election office.
Two family friends from Delhi have joined them and help SINGH with the door-to-door campaign.
On of them, Khushi, says Singh was bit confused at the start of campaign but has adapted well and is working hard to reach out to voters.
The backroom operators are two pradhans (village heads) who have a long association with the family. At times, some local Congressmen join them, but not on a regular basis, one of the pradhans said.
“We are largely running this campaign on our own. You can understand even the people willing to help cannot do it openly, such is terror of (Kuldeep) Sengar and his family,” he alleged.
Asha is up against the sitting BJP MLA Pankaj Gupta, Samajwadi Party candidate Abhinav Kumar and the Bahujan Samaj Party’s Devendra Singh.
“I am thankful to Priyanka (Gandhi Vadra) Didi that we have this chance to fight for every woman. We have been through a lot,” the survivor said.
Geeta Devi, a local resident, said she was impressed with Priyanka Gandhi for giving respect and ticket to mother of rape survivor.
According to Singh, her main priority is helping and empowering women.
In 2017, the Congress did not contest this seat as it was allied with Samajwadi Party that contested this seat securing 73,597 votes (32%). BJP got 1,19, 670 votes. Congress won this seat last was in 1967,when Ziaur Rehman, alias Wakkan, got 13,733 votes.
