Lucknow The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday dropped former wrestling federation chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh but named his son Karan Bhushan Singh as the candidate from the Kaiserganj Lok Sabha constituency, sparking celebrations at the home of the controversial but heavyweight politician and condemnation from opposition parties and top athletes who accused him of sexual harassment.
The party also named Uttar Pradesh minister Dinesh Pratap Singh as the candidate from Rae Bareli, a pocket borough of the Congress, which is yet to decide whether a Gandhi family member will fight from the seat that Sonia Gandhi won in four consecutive elections from 2004 to 2019.
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At Singh’s Gonda home, supporters started distributing sweets as soon as the BJP made the announcement, and shouted slogans in his support.
“Yes, my son has got the ticket,” he told the media in Kaiserganj. “Kya karein, dabdaba toh hai, woh toh Bhagwan ka diya hua hai (what can I do, the clout and political heft is god-gifted),” he said when asked him if the ticket meant that he would continue to wield clout.
In a video on social media, Karan was seen touching the feet of his father, who was seated amid a sea of supporters at home. “I am thankful to the party leadership and the public that they have given me an opportunity to serve the people here,” he told the media.
This is his first political battle.
Singh is a six-time MP and has represented the Gonda, Balrampur and Kaiserganj constituencies, winning his 2019 election by about 260,000 votes. But two years ago, he was embroiled in sexual harassment allegations by some of India’s top wrestlers, including Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Bajrang Punia, Rio bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, and double World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat.
“The daughters of the country lost, Brij Bhushan won,” said Malik on X. “We all put our careers at stake, slept on the streets for many days in sun and rain. Till date, Brij Bhushan has not been arrested. We were not demanding anything, we were only demanding justice. Leave the arrest. Today, by giving a ticket to his son, you have broken the morale of crores of daughters of the country. If the ticket goes to only one family, is the country’s government so weak in front of one man? Are only votes are needed in the name of Lord Shri Ram? What about the path shown by him?” she questioned.
Bajrang Punia, meanwhile, described the decision as the “country’s misfortune”.
The announcement means that despite the outrage that swept the nation last year and the potential fallout of the decision in Haryana, which goes to the polls later this year, the BJP chose to repose its trust in the political heavyweight.
Singh – along with another accused, suspended assistant secretary of WFI, Vinod Tomar – is facing charges under sections 354 (assault or criminal force with intent to outrage modesty), 354A (sexual harassment) and 354D (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Delhi Police have cited technical and corroborative evidence, such as witness statements and photographs, to prove that former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Singh sexually harassed some of India’s top wrestlers in its 1,500-page charge sheet last year.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “Just when we thought that the Prajwal Revanna scandal had exposed the depths of the BJP’s depravity, they show that there are always new lows for them to fall to. They have now rewarded Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, accused of sexual harassment by many of our women wrestlers, with a ticket for his son. This is a party with no moral compass, led by a man whose only anchor is his desire for boundless power,” Ramesh said in a post on X, referring to sexual abuse case against Prajwal Revanna, a leader of JD(S), a BJP ally in the ongoing elections.
In a post on X in Hindi, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said, “Father Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s ticket to his son. Do you talk of giving justice to women like this?”
Karan was elected the president of the Uttar Pradesh Wrestling Association in February. Born on December 13, 1990, he is a law graduate from Dr Ram Manohar Law University, Faizabad, and has a diploma in business management from Australia. He is also chairman of a Cooperative Bank at Nawabganj in Gonda district and managed his father’s daily political affairs in Kaiserganj.
Prateek Bhushan Singh, Singh’s elder son , is the BJP lawmaker from Gonda (Sadar) assembly constituency.
The BJP did not officially comment on the nomination.
With this, the BJP has named its candidates for all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.
The suspense about Kaiserganj was heightened because the Samajwadi Party also held back its candidate announcement, giving rise to speculation that the opposition party was looking to accommodate Singh should he be denied the ticket by the BJP.
Singh had switched over to the SP in 2008 after the BJP expelled him over cross-voting in the Lok Sabha over no-confidence motion. He again joined the BJP before the 2014 general elections.
This is the second time a member of Singh’s family will contest his seat. In 1996, his wife Ketaki contested and won Gonda seat after Singh was accused of sheltering terrorists, a charge he was subsequently exonerated from.
“There was never any doubt as to who would contest from here. Now, this is official that Kaiserganj is going to stay with the family as the baton is rightly getting passed from the father to son,” said Dharmendra Singh, a Singh loyalist in Kaiserganj.
The Bahujan Samaj Party named its candidate, Narendra Pandey, on the seat earlier in the day while the SP candidate is still awaited.
Uncertainty persisted meanwhile over who Congress was going to field in the Rae Bareli and Amethi Lok Sabha seats, once considered the party’s bastions in Uttar Pradesh. Some Congress leaders suggested that Rahul Gandhi, who is already in the Lok Sabha fray from Kerala’s Wayanad seat, might fight from Rae Bareli, a seat held by his mother and former party chief Sonia Gandhi, who has moved to the Rajya Sabha.
But there was confusion about whether Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest from Amethi, a seat that was held by Rahul Gandhi between 2004 and 2019. Both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi have expressed some initial reluctance even as leaders said Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge was trying to convince them.
Both Amethi and Rae Bareli go to the polls on May 20. In Amethi, the BJP has nominated incumbent MP Smriti Irani, who defeated Rahul Gandhi by 55,000 votes in 2019. In Rae Bareli, the only seat the Congress won in 2019, the BJP named UP minister Dinesh Pratap Singh as its candidate on Thursday.
