Gandhi family loyalist RPN Singh joins BJP

Vibha Sharma

New Delhi, January 25

Senior Congress leader RPN Singh, the party’s star campaigner for Uttar Pradesh, today joined the rival BJP ahead of the elections to the key state, becoming yet another name in the long list of leaders to have crossed over to the saffron party in the recent past.

Congress No longer the same party

It’s (Cong) no longer the party where I beganhellip; Not the same ideology. For years, people had been telling me to join the BJP. Here I am today. Better late than never. RPN Singh

The Gandhi family loyalist who was a minister in the UPA government joined the BJP in the presence of its top leadership, including Union Ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia, Anurag Thakur and Dharmendra Pradhan and UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Singh praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda and all the development works by BJP’s “double-engine government” in UP, in particular his region Purvanchal. “What people there dreamt of has been realised,” he said, also praising the law and order in the state.

Targeting the Congress, he recalled his association with “the party he was in for 32 years” where he “worked with dedication and honesty”. “It’s no longer the party where I beganhellip; Not the same ideology. For years, people had been telling me to join the BJP. Here I am today, better late than never,” Singh said. Pradhan, BJP’s UP in-charge, said he had been personally pursuing Singh to join the BJP.

Sources said Singh was upset with the Congress over various issues and had been in touch with the BJP leadership for the past few days. Speculations are rife that the OBC leader may be fielded from Padrauna against Swami Prasad Maurya, who recently switched from the BJP to the Samajwadi Party. Singh had represented Padrauna in the Assembly for three terms and also defeated Maurya from Kushinagar in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

Singh’s joining the BJP is a major setback for the Congress, particularly Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who was looking to revive the party in UP.