On the eve of Swabhiman Rally in Sultanpur, former MlA and muscleman, Chandra Bhadra Singh alias Sonu Singh, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in lucknow on Wednesday.
Singh joined the BJP in the presence of party’s state vice-president Hardwar Dubey and state general secretary Ramnath Kobid. It is believed that the BJP central leadership decided to induct Sonu Singh into the party despite his image of a muscleman.
The Swabhiman Rally in Sultanpur on Thursday is scheduled to be attended by BJP’s former chief Nitin Gadkari and the present general secretary Varun Gandhi.
Earlier, Sonu Singh had won the Isauli Assembly seat in Sultanpur on the ticket of the Samajwadi Party and later of the Bahujan Samaj Party. In the 2012 Assembly election, Sonu and his brother Yash Bhadra alias Monu Singh, had contested from Sultanpur Sadar and Isauli seats respectively as Peace Party candidates but had ended up as runners.
Monu Singh was elected unopposed as block pramukh of Dhanpatganj for three terms but he is presently lodged in jail. The criminal cases against Sonu Singh notwithstanding, his supporters refuse to call him a ‘goon’ and hail him as a leader enjoying considerable clout in the area.