Polls apart: MLC who vacated seat for Yogi Adityanath is axed over seat for son

Singh, who was re-elected as MLC as a BJP candidate in 2018, was expelled by the party on Monday for six years on the charge of “anti-party” activities.

His expulsion came as a surprise given his proximity to Adityanath, not only because of that 2017 seat help, but also due to Singh’s association with the CM’s guru Mahant Avaidyanath.

Singh told The Indian Express he had received no expulsion orders, and had heard only through the media that the BJP had taken action against him.

Singh first rose in politics as a follower of socialist leader and former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, and still runs a trust named after him in Azamgarh. Jailed during the Emergency, he derives a pension on account of that.

A fellow Thakur, Singh claims he first came in touch with Adityanath through Avaidyanath. “I resigned from the Legislative Council only to vacate a seat for Adityanathji, and offered that he should contest the bypoll to it,” he told The Indian Express.

In the recent Assembly elections, Adityanath won from Gorakhpur Urban seat.

In the expulsion letter issued on Monday, the BJP said it had received complaints from district and regional units that Singh’s son Vikrant Singh alias Rinshu was contesting as an Independent against the party’s nominee in the Legislative Council elections and that Singh was canvassing for his son.

The BJP candidate, former party MLA Arun Kumar Yadav, incidentally is the son of the SP MLA from Phoolpur-Pawai in Azamgarh district.

Singh does not deny that his son is contesting as an Independent. However, he adds, he is himself not campaigning for anybody, either his son or the BJP candidate. “That is because BJP leaders from the local district and state units did not call me. My son too did not ask me,” he claims.

Singh also denies demanding a ticket for his son, while pointing out that the BJP had earlier declined a ticket to him in 2021 for the zila panchayat elections. “He had been a zila panchayat member on an SP ticket but came to the BJP with me. When he asked for a zila panchayat ticket, the BJP denied it saying he was the son of an MLC.”

In his political career, Singh has seen several parties. He contested his first Assembly election from Mubarakpur in Azamgarh district in 1985 as a Janata Party candidate but lost. Then he won in 1989 as a candidate of the Janata Dal from that same seat. He lost in 1991 but as a Janata Party nominee. Later he joined the BSP and won as an MLA in 1996. By 2002, he was in the Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJNSP), and lost the election that year as its candidate.

After that he joined the SP and won Legislative Council polls thrice, in 2004, 2010 and 2016, with the blessings of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav. In 2017, he moved to the BJP, and a year later, got elected to the Legislative Council again. His current term will end in May 2024.