Aditi Singh, rebel Congress MLA from Sonia Gandhi’s parliamentary constituency, on Wednesday joined the BJP just before the crucial UP assembly polls. Singh was elected to the UP assembly in 2017 from Raebareli, took to Twitter to announce that she had jumped the ship to join the Hindutva party.
“Today, I accepted the membership of the Bhartiya Janata Party, which is committed to pro-people policies and integrity and sovereignty of the country. I am confident that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, I will be able to ensure the development of my constituency.”
Singh was earlier rumoured to be marrying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. She had to issue a public statement denying the rumours. She had said, “Such rumours upset me. I would like to clarify that Rahul Ji is my rakhi brother and I am really saddened by such rumours on social media.”
Daughter of five-term Congress MLA Akhilesh Singh, Aditi Singh was also believed to be very close to the Gandhi family. She was often photographed with Priyanka Gandhi during her visits to Uttar Pradesh. However, her relationship with the Congress took a beating in 2019 when she met Adityanath.
Singh, who supported the abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, had lashed out at her own leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for ‘cheap politics’ over the issue of stranded migrant workers last year. In a series of hard-hitting tweets, she had targeted Priyanka Gandhi without naming her as she heaped praises on Adityanath.
She had written, “What’s the need for this cheap politics during the time of such crisis? Sent a list of 1,000 buses, but the fraud of more than half even on that list. 297 buses are useless, 98 of them are auto-rickshaws and ambulance-type vehicles, 68 vehicles are without any papers. What kind of a cruel joke is that? If you have buses, then why did you not send them to Rajasthan, Punjab and Maharashtra?”
Uttar Pradesh goes to polls in early 2021 with the Congress making desperate attempts to revive the party in India’s most populous state.
