Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, on Monday, expelled former minister Raj Kishore Singh and his brother Brij Kishore Singh, who were considered to be the big faces of the party in UP politics. It is being speculated that Raj Kishore Singh would soon join the Bharatiya Janata Party.
There is a buzz that Raj Kishore Singh, who has proved his mettle by being in parties like BSP, Samajwadi Party and Congress, may prefer the saffron camp as his next destination. Sources said that after Mayawati saw Raj Kishore Singh’s brother with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, she got angry and shunted both the brothers out of the party on Monday.
Talking to the media, Raj Kishore Singh, a three-time cabinet minister of Uttar Pradesh, said that the BSP was a sinking boat so it would be better to leave it. In Purvanchal, Raj Kishore Singh has a huge mass base of his own. He said that after being expelled from the BSP, he would now talk to his workers and only then take a decision. In fact, both these leaders have had to bear the brunt of being close to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Both these leaders were seen in Eknath Shinde's programme as his shadow. Mayawati did not like their closeness with her rival.
Meanwhile, Mayawati on Monday strongly advocated the use of ballot papers in the mayoral and corporators’ polls of municipal corporations in Uttar Pradesh and said her party would contest the elections with full vigour.
“Voting for the municipal corporations should be conducted using ballot papers, and not through EVMs. The elections should be free and fair. This is our demand to the government and officials concerned,” the BSP chief said while addressing media persons here on Monday afternoon.
The Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission had on Sunday announced the urban local bodies polls in two phases, on May 4 and 11, three months after the high court quashed the government’s draft notification providing Other Backward Class (OBC) reservation in the elections. “The voting for the urban local bodies polls will be held on May 4 and 11. The counting of votes will take place on May 13,” State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar had said.
Mayawati said that her party had decided to contest the polls with full vigour so that every section of society could be taken care of at the urban local body level. The urban local bodies elections will be held for 17 seats of mayor, 1,420 seats of corporator, 199 of nagar palika parishad chairperson, 5,327 of nagar palika parishad member, 544 of nagar panchayat chairperson and 7,178 seats of nagar panchayat member.
The local bodies elections will witness political parties, including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, principal opposition Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party trying to strengthen themselves ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The politically crucial state sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha.
There has been an increase of 107 local bodies as compared to 2017 when the urban bodies elections were last held. The new urban bodies consist of one municipal corporation, one municipal council and 105 nagar panchayats. As compared to 2017, this time around 96.33 lakh more voters will exercise their voting rights.
According to the State Election Commission, this year more than 4.32 crore people will use their franchise in the civic polls as against 3.35 crore in the 2017 elections.