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Will contest Lok Sabha polls from Kaiserganj seat, says Brij Bhushan
Former WFI chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, facing allegations of sexual harassment, said he will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Kaiserganj in Uttar Pradesh again. Singh also said he is waiting for court verdict to speak on the athletes' protest. Singh won the Kaiserganj seat thrice.
Former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is facing allegations of sexual harassment of athletes, including one minor, on Sunday said he will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Kaiserganj in Uttar Pradesh again.
Singh, who has lorded over Indian wrestling for 12 years and has denied all accusations against him, also said he is awaiting the court’s verdict to speak on the athletes’ protest, which has now been suspended till June 15 after the government sought time for a charge sheet to be filed.
Speaking to reporters after addressing a rally in his Lok Sabha constituency in Gonda district, Singh said: “2024 ka chunav Kaiserganj se ladoonga (I will recontest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Kaiserganj).
The BJP leader has represented Kaiserganj seat thrice – once as a Samajwadi Party MP (from 2009 to 2014). He won the 2004 general elections from Balrampur Lok Sabha seat, and the 1991 and 1999 Lok Sabha polls from the Gonda seat on BJP tickets. He is currently serving a sixth term as Lok Sabha MP.
Singh also exuded confidence that the BJP would return to power at the Centre next year.
Asked why he was not commenting on the wrestlers’ protest and what he was waiting for, Singh said: “Court ke faisle ka (court’s verdict)”.
At the rally, the BJP MP began his 23-minute speech with an Urdu couple: “Kabhi ashq, kabhi gham, to kabhi zeher piya jata hai... tab ja kar zamane mein jiya jata hai. Yeh mila mujhko mohabbat ka silla, bewafa kehke mera naam liya jata hai. Isko ruswai kahen ki shohrat apni, dabe hontho se mera naam liya jata hai (Sometimes one has to take a lot of grief and poison to live in this world... This is the reward I got for my love, they call me unfaithful. Should I call it notoriety or fame, they take my name with pursed lips).”
Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Bajrang Punia, Rio Games bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, and double World Championship bronze medallist Vinesh Phogat are among prominent names involved in the agitation.
Two first information reports (FIRs) have been filed against Singh so far.
On Wednesday, the wrestlers suspended their protest after a six-hour-long meeting with Union sports minister Anurag Thakur, marking the first sign of resolution in the months-long deadlock in talks between the players and the government.
On Friday, a team of Delhi Police visited the WFI office with one of the complainants for about 30 minutes to recreate the sequence of events even as Singh was in his house on the same premises.
A day later, the protesters announced they will relaunch their agitation if Delhi Police files a weak charge sheet against Singh over allegations of sexual harassment.
Earlier this month, Singh postponed his June 5 rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, after the district administration denied permission for the event citing prohibitory orders in the area.
On Sunday, Singh covered a distance of nearly 40 kilometres by road to reach the event venue. A large number of BJP workers and supporters turned up for the rally, braving temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius.
Political experts said that Singh steered clear of targeting the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP).
“He did say that he would contest from Kaiserganj, but he did not say on which party’s symbol or as an Independent? So, it could also mean that he may want to keep his options open. One would well recall how he had praised SP chief Akhilesh Yadav for not joining the wrestlers’ protest. In politics, you work on possibilities, and this surely appears to be one if he fails to get a BJP ticket,” said Athar Siddiqui of the Centre for Objective Research and Development.
