BJP Drops Brij Bhushan Singh From Kaiserganj Lok Sabha Seat in UP, Fields His Son Instead

New Delhi: The BJP on Thursday announced names of candidates from the Rae Bareli and Kaiserganj Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh in its 17 list of candidates for the upcoming general elections. In the fresh list, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dropped sitting MP Brij Bhushan Saran Singh from the Kaiserganj Lok Sabha seat and fielded his son Karan Bhushan Singh from the constituency. Notably, Brij Bhushan Singh is been accused of sexual harassment by the women wrestlers, while being the president of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). Apart from Kaiserganj, the party has declared Dinesh Pratap Singh as the BJP’s candidate from the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat.

In the 17 list of Lok Sabha candidates, the BJP took everyone by surprise, when the party decided to drop the name of Kaiserganj sitting MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and announced his son Karan as the candidate from the seat. Karan Bhushan Singh is presently the president of the Uttar Pradesh wrestling association.

Brij Bhushan Saran Singh is been accused of sexual harassment by the women wrestlers

Karan Bhushan Singh is the youngest son of Brij Bhushan Saran Singh, a six-time Member of Parliament (MP), 5 times from the BJP and once from the Samajwadi Party. In 1991 he was elected to the 10th Lok Sabha from Gonda constituency in Uttar Pradesh as BJP candidate. In July 2008, he joined the Samajwadi Party after the BJP expelled him for cross-voting in the parliament during the 2008 Lok Sabha vote of confidence.

He later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party months before the 16th general election and was re-elected as a member of 17th Lok Sabha from the BJP. He was the president of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) from 2011-2023.

Brij Bhushan Saran Singh, is currently at the centre of the accusations of sexual harassment by India's top female wrestlers, wherein 7 female wrestlers including 1 minor have testified against him in an FIR. The wrestlers, including Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat staged a massive protest seeking action against Singh at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar last year.

On the other hand, in Rae Bareli, the BJP has reaffirmed confidence in Dinesh Pratap Singh, who contested against Sonia Gandhi in 2019 polls. Though he lost the election, he managed to pull considerable reduction in the defeat margin.

In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Sonia Gandhi, contesting in the party’s stronghold, pulled out 534,918 votes and a vote share of 55.80 per cent while Dinesh Pratap Singh grabbed 367,740 votes with a vote share of 38.36 per cent.

With the release of a fresh list of candidates, the BJP has now declared candidates for two key seats in Uttar Pradesh including Amethi and Rae Bareli, while, the Congress remains indecisive yet on the candidates’ names in both the constituencies.

Kaiserganj votes on May 20 in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections. The last date for filing nomination is May 3.

BJP announces candidates for Odisha Assembly polls

The saffron party on Thursday also released the names of 6 candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in Odisha, which will vote on May 13 and 20 to elect 147 members of the Odisha Assembly.

The party has allotted tickets to Purnachandra Mohapatra from Barabati-Cuttack Assembly seat and Sudhanshu Nayak from Bhandaripokhari seat. With this, the BJP has released as many as 146 candidates out of 147 Assembly seats in the state. The party is yet to announce a candidate for the Nilgiri Assembly seat in the state. For the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had already announced candidates in all the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies in Odisha.

List of 6 BJP candidates for Odisha Assembly elections:

Barabati-Cuttack seat - Purnachandra Mohapatra

Bari seat - Umesh Chandra Jena

Ghasipura seat - Shambhunath Rout

Bhograi seat - Ashish Patra

Bhandaripokhari - Sudhanshu Nayak

Begunia - Prakash Chandra Ranabijuli