While the Uttar Pradesh Congress said that Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s two-day trip to his Raebareli constituency last week has enthused the party’s rank and file, the LoP’s visit seems to have also made waves in the ruling BJP camp in the region.
As Rahul headed to his constituency from Lucknow on September 10, UP Minister of State for Horticulture Dinesh Pratap Singh, a BJP MLC, staged a demonstration along with his supporters in Raebareli to protest the abusive remarks made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mother by an alleged Congress supporter in Darbhanga during the Congress leader’s recent Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar.
Dinesh, a former Congress leader who hails from Raebareli, demanded that Rahul apologise for the Darbhanga incident.
The next day, on September 11, the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) meeting, held to review various government development schemes in Raebareli district, saw a heated exchange between Rahul and Dinesh, whose video went viral on social media.
Rahul chaired the meeting, in which several legislators and block chiefs of Raebareli were present. The confrontation between Rahul and Dinesh happened when the LoP asked the latter to seek the chairman’s permission before making his comments.
However, amid this spat at the DISHA meeting, BJP MLA from Raebareli (Sadar) Aditi Singh remained silent. Manoj Kumar Pandey, expelled Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA from Raebareli’s Unchahar segment, walked out of the meeting after seeking Rahul’s reaction over the Darbhanga incident. Manoj, who has now been affiliated to the BJP, was expelled from the SP by its leadership in June this year for allegedly indulging in “anti-party activities”.
Dinesh’s all-out attempts to take on Rahul was seen in state BJP circles as a bid to steal a march over his party rivals in Raebareli. Taking a dim view of it, a senior BJP leader from the district said: “The BJP cadre would do as directed by the party leadership. We should not be part of any race. There are leaders who are trying to establish themselves, but we are sure the leadership is watching and would take appropriate decisions accordingly.”
Dinesh’s relations with Aditi and Manoj have been strained as they remain caught in a game of intra-party one-upmanship, BJP sources said, adding that they have all been making attempts to emerge as the party’s face from the region.
A former Congress MLC, Dinesh had switched to the BJP before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and contested it on the party’s ticket from Raebareli against Sonia Gandhi. Although he lost the poll, Dinesh managed to reduce Sonia’s victory margin to 1.67 lakh from 3.52 lakh in the 2014 polls.
Dinesh again contested as a BJP nominee from Raebareli in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, when he took on
Rahul Gandhi, losing to him by 3.90 lakh votes. He was rewarded with a ministerial berth in the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government when it was formed for the second term in early 2022.
Aditi was also a former Congress legislator, who is currently the lone BJP MLA from Raebareli district. She had crossed over to the BJP before the 2022 UP Assembly elections.
Former UP minister and SP’s chief whip, Manoj Kumar Pandey, had first rebelled against the Akhilesh Yadav-led party during the Rajya Sabha elections in February 2024, when he along with a few other SP MLAs had allegedly “cross-voted” in favour of the BJP candidates.
Looking to contest the 2027 Assembly polls as a BJP candidate, Manoj has now been projecting himself as a Brahmin leader in the region.
In an oblique criticism of Dinesh’s moves, Aditi said a platform like DISHA dedicated for development works should be kept out of politics and spats. She said all the leaders should rise above party lines in such meetings and keep the focus of their discussion on development issues in the interest of the people.
On September 13, Aditi along with two BJP leaders from Raebareli, including ex-MLA Dhirendra Singh, met CM Adityanath in Lucknow. Sources said she also apprised the CM of the entire sequence of events that took place during the DISHA meeting.
The Congress camp took a swipe at the rumblings in the Raebareli BJP in the wake of Rahul’s visit. “These incidents have put the BJP and its leaders in a negative light. It is also interesting that the same minister (Dinesh), who was shouting slogans against Rahul on the first day, was introducing his son to him during the DISHA meeting the next day,” said a Congress leader, referring to their picture with Rahul. Dinesh later clarified that the LoP met not only his son Piyush but other block chiefs of Raebareli too.
BJP sources said, “We are hopeful that an expected Cabinet reshuffle in the coming days would make things clearer as to whether a new power centre would emerge in the party in the region, or Dinesh would retain his upper hand.”
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