RPN Singh quits Congress, joins BJP fortnight before UP Assembly polls

May contest Padrauna seat against BJP turncoat Maurya

After years of warning that the popularity of the Congress I, then his party, was waning in Uttar Pradesh, RPN Singh (57), the Raja of Padrauna or ‘Ritchie’ to friends, crossed over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday.

He is most likely to contest the Assembly elections against Swami Prasad Maurya, who last week quit the BJP (he was MLA from Padrauna) to join the Samajwadi Party.

“This is a new beginning for me and I look forward to my contribution to nation building under the visionary leadership & guidance of the Honourable Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi, BJP president Shri @JPNadda ji & Honourable Home Minister @AmitShah ji,” Singh tweeted before joining the BJP in Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s presence. Jyotira­ditya Scindia, who quit the Congress to join the BJP and is the civil aviation minister, was present for at ceremony. Singh is the second big exit from the Congress in UP after Jitin Prasada quit last year.

Padrauna

Though Singh won the Lok Sabha elections only once from the Kushinagar seat in 2009, he has won the Padrauna Assembly seat thrice — in 1996, 2002, and 2007.

Singh held the Union minister of state for home and other portfolios in the second term of the Manmohan Singh government. He was made the party in charge of Jharkhand, where the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha formed a coalition government in the last Assembly election.

He contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Kushinagar seat, but came third after the BJP and the SP candidates, getting only 13 per cent of the vote.

How much the Congress was invested in him is clear from the fact that he was on the list of ‘star campaigners’ of the party, though the party overlooked his claim to field his supporters in the Assembly election.

Singh had his reservations about the personal attacks launched by the Congress leadership against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially the ‘chowkidar chor hai’ slogan and spoke up at the Congress’s internal meetings, questioning the political wisdom of this line.

The Congress reacted with anger at the defection. Party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate called the fight between the BJP and Congress a “war of ideology”. “To win this fight you have to be brave. Only a coward can jump to a party with a completely opposite ideology,” she said. 

Singh belongs to a small community of royalty that is classified among Other Backward Classes (OBCs). He is a Kurmi and the BJP admitted him to the party so hurriedly because it wanted an OBC to take on Maurya. The Padrauna clash promises to be among the most interesting battles in this election. (With inputs from PTI)