Raebareli MLA Aditi Singh has become the latest BJP leader to attack officials in the Uttar Pradesh government over their actions.
In a recent statement, Aditi accused “former public representatives” of threatening vendors who were protesting against an anti-encroachment drive and journalists, and added, “Yeh mera shehr hai. Agar koi kisi dukaandar ya patrakaar ko dhamkayega… koi kahega ki hum paanch jutey marenge… toh hum usko 10 jutey marenge (This is my city. If someone threatens vendors or journalists… says will hit them five times with shoes… we will hit them 10 times),” she said.
The lone BJP MLA from the five Assembly segments falling under the Raebareli Lok Sabha seat that is a Congress bastion, Aditi, 37, won for the second time from Raebareli in 2022, after her first victory in 2017 on the Congress ticket. Her father Akhilesh Singh, a strongman-turned-politician, was a five-term MLA from Raebareli – winning three times with the Congress, before winning as an Independent in 2007 and then with the Peace Party in 2012.
Aditi holds a Master’s degree in management studies from Duke University in the United States, and this plus the fact that she became the youngest MLA in the UP Assembly when elected in 2017 had earned her fame as a rising star in the Congress.
In May 2019, during the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, Aditi had hit the headlines after her convoy was attacked in Raebareli district. She laid the blame on Dinesh Pratap Singh, the BJP’s Raebareli Lok Sabha seat candidate at the time, and his family, and filed an FIR against him. It was Aditi’s first major brush with Dinesh.
In August 2019, giving the first hint of her changing political leanings, Aditi went against the Congress line by supporting the abrogation of Article 370, which stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status.
In October 2019, Aditi defied the Congress’s decision to boycott a special 36-hour Assembly session. She not only attended it, but also spoke in the Assembly against the Congress boycott, and later held a meeting with Chief Minister Adityanath. At the time, the Congress had just seven MLAs. Hours later, the Adityanath government granted her Y-plus security, citing the May attack on her convoy and alleging threat to her life.
The Congress then issued a show cause notice to Singh, asking her to explain her “extreme indiscipline”. Raebareli Congress workers held protests seeking her resignation and alleged she was “under the influence” of the BJP.
In November 2019, the Congress moved a petition in the Assembly seeking Aditi’s disqualification for “anti-party activities”. But the petition was eventually rejected by the Speaker, who said the anti-defection law did not apply to her as she had attended the special Assembly session in “interest of the public”.
In May 2020, amid the nationwide lockdown after the Covid-19 pandemic struck, Aditi attacked the Congress for “playing cheap politics”, after senior party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra arranged 1,000 buses for transport of migrant workers. “When the UP government looked into the list of buses provided by the Congress, it turned out that many vehicles are autorickshaws, two-wheelers and three-wheelers. The Congress is wasting the time of government officials by providing bogus lists and creating political pressure,” she said, going on to praise Adityanath for “rescuing stranded students” from Kota, Rajasthan.
Soon after, Aditi, who also accused the Congress of “failing to give its leaders space”, was suspended as general secretary of the Congress’s women’s wing.
In November 2021, finally, Aditi quit the Congress, and joined the BJP months ahead of the 2022 UP Assembly elections. Two months later, she officially resigned from the Congress in a letter to then party president Sonia Gandhi.
In 2022, now contesting as a BJP candidate, Aditi retained the Raebareli Assembly seat, defeating her Samajwadi Party rival by over 7,000 votes.
In 2024, an audio recording of a telephonic conversation attributed to her went viral. In the recording, she could purportedly be heard threatening an unknown person.
In the latest case, while district officials said the anti-encroachment drive was intended to ensure proper flow of traffic, Aditi accused them of taking bribes. “I do not get angry usually. But these street vendors standing with me are facing extortion by officials of the municipal council,” she said, adding: “I came to know that there are some people, especially former public representatives here, who are threatening locals and journalists on a personal level, which cannot happen. It is unparliamentary. I have to answer them back in the language that they understand.”
Aditi’s remarks were seen as directed at ex-MLA Rakesh Singh, which has deepened the BJP’s discomfiture as his brother is Dinesh Singh, now a BJP MLC and state Horticulture Minister. Aditi also referred in her statement to recent social media posts by Rakesh, warning those “trying to malign the image” of his family.