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Journalism of Courage
By fielding Kaiserganj MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s youngest son Karan Bhushan Singh in the Kaiserganj Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has attempted to get over the Catch-22 situation by not fielding the six-time parliamentarian who has been accused of sexual assault and at the same time giving the ticket to someone from his immediate family to ensure it does not lose out on his clout in Kaiserganj and nearby areas.
Karan, who is 28 years old, is the youngest of Brij Bhushan’s three sons and succeeded him as the UP Wrestling Association president in February. He has been a national-level trap shooter and the coming election will be his first foray into mainstream electoral politics.
Had the BJP renominated Brij Bhushan, the former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president, it would have been vulnerable to criticism from the Opposition for fielding someone whom the country’s top female wrestlers have accused of sexual assault. This would have also been bad optics at a time when the party is facing criticism over the sexual abuse allegations against Prajwal Revanna, the Hassan MP who is from the party’s Karnataka ally Janata Dal (Secular). Meanwhile, denying the Kaiserganj strongman or his close family the ticket would have been a blow to its prospects in at least six Lok Sabha seats, including Kaiserganj, Shravasti, Basti, and Ayodhya.
Singh, a six-time MP has won Kaiserganj five times on a BJP ticket and once for the SP. His writ runs large in eastern UP politics and he is actively associated with more than 50 educational institutions, including engineering, pharmacy, education, law and others that he established in Bahraich, Gonda, Balrampur, Ayodhya, and Shravasti districts. Singh is known to give fee waivers to poor students enrolled in his colleges and has an image showcasing that he helps the poor, something that is uniform among popular strongman leaders in UP.
Singh was also associated with the Ram Janmabhoomi Movement — as per his 2019 election affidavit, he was named in the Babri Masjid demolition case — and enjoys the support of a large section of priests in Ayodhya. That support has remained unwavering despite the sexual harassment allegations.
The second factor for the BJP to consider was the anger among the Thakur community in UP. Singh, a prominent Thakur leader in UP, being denied a ticket would have led to the Thakur community feeling more alienated. The BJP has faced some backlash in western and other parts of UP over the lack of tickets for leaders from the community. Denying Singh a ticket would have given more ammunition to the Opposition parties reaching out to Thakurs, who constitute around 7% of the state’s population and are a crucial vote bank for the BJP.
A BJP leader in Gonda said the third reason why the party couldn’t deny a ticket to Brij Bhushan is that there was the possibility that the Samajwadi Party, the main Opposition to the BJP, could have fielded him from the constituency.
The local BJP functionary said the SP not fielding a candidate till Thursday evening indicated that Singh could have switched over to the SP had the BJP “wronged him”. “See, the SP would have fielded a candidate by now if they weren’t waiting for the BJP to play its card. The BJP top leadership has played it safe,” said the leader.
To date, Akhilesh has remained silent on the allegations against Brij Bhushan, while other Opposition leaders have repeatedly targeted the BJP and demanded the MP’s removal.
