By Express News Service
LUCKNOW: Embattled and outgoing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP’s Kaiserganj MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, on Sunday, announced that he would be contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from his current constituency which he has been representing in the lower house of Parliament since 2009.
Taking off poetically, Singh, who has been facing the charges of sexual harassment of the female wrestlers, said: “Kabhi Ashq, kabhi gham aur kabhi zehar piya jata hai…ye mila mujhko mohabbat ka sila…bewafa kah kar mujhe yaad kiya jaat hai, issko ruswai kahein ki shohrat apni, dabe honto se mera naam liya jaat hai… (The reward which I have received for my love replete with tears, pain and poison is that now I am known as a betrayer. Call it my fame or infamy, they discuss my name surreptitiously),” he said to vent out his agony without making any direct reference to the protest by top wrestlers including Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Mallik and Bajrang Punia seeking his arrest.
He sought to close the controversy surrounding him by quoting a couplet from Ramcharitmanas: Huiye wahi jo Ram rachi rakha, ko kari tarak badhavai sakha (everything will happen as per the wishes of Lord Ram).
Addressing a rally organised by BJP in Gonda to mark the completion of nine years of Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the beleaguered BJP MP, however, avoided the name of the party from which he would contest the next election.
As per the speculations, the BJP top brass is not very enthusiastic about fielding him from Kaiserganj in 2024 owing to the ongoing controversy involving him as a WFI chief.
At the same time, the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s support to the wrestlers has sent across a clear message to the strongman of Gonda that it would not be feasible for him to get a ticket from SP in 2024.
ALSO READ | Wrestlers say WFI chief pressurising victims; to resume protest if no action is taken by June 15
After a guarded silence over the wrestlers’ protest, Akhilesh recently demanded justice for the wrestlers who have been protesting against the WFI chief.
Singh, a six-time Lok Sabha member, five times from BJP and once from SP, has also represented Gonda in 1991 and 1999.
In the 2009 parliamentary elections, he was elected from Kaiserganj on an SP ticket.
Having come to attend the Gonda rally while holding a 25-km roadshow in his bastion in a show of strength and popularity, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh focussed his address more on the alleged shortcomings of Congress rule since independence.
Listing out the accomplishments of the Modi government, Singh slammed the previous Congress governments for conspiring to obstruct the verdict in favour of the Ram Temple at the Babri masjid site.
He also held the grand old party responsible for the encroachment of swathes of the country’s land by Pakistan and China in 1948 and 1962 respectively. “This would have never been possible in Modi’s India,” said Singh.
ALSO READ | “We will participate in Asian Games only when all our issues get resolved”: Sakshi Malik
He said that Modi and Shah had realised the slogan: Paida Hue the Jahan Mookherjee, Who Kashmir Humara hai (the land of Shayam Prasad Mookherjee belongs to us).
Recalling the emergency days, he narrated how he was incarcerated in 1975 by the then Congress dispensation led by PM Indira Gandhi.
The roadshow started at his residence in Vaishnoharpur and ended at the rally venue Raghuraj Sharan Singh Degree College (owned by him) in Colonelganj where the rally was organised.
Last week, a poster mentioning Singh as the convener of the Sunday rally and Madhya Pradesh higher education minister Mohan Yadav as chief guest of the event was released on social media.
Earlier, Singh had to cancel his proposed rally in Ayodhya scheduled for June 5 possibly after the directives from the BJP top brass. Though Singh had then maintained that he cancelled the rally since the matter pertaining to allegations of sexual harassment against him by the protesting wrestlers was pending an ongoing probe.
LUCKNOW: Embattled and outgoing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP’s Kaiserganj MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, on Sunday, announced that he would be contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from his current constituency which he has been representing in the lower house of Parliament since 2009.
Taking off poetically, Singh, who has been facing the charges of sexual harassment of the female wrestlers, said: “Kabhi Ashq, kabhi gham aur kabhi zehar piya jata hai…ye mila mujhko mohabbat ka sila…bewafa kah kar mujhe yaad kiya jaat hai, issko ruswai kahein ki shohrat apni, dabe honto se mera naam liya jaat hai… (The reward which I have received for my love replete with tears, pain and poison is that now I am known as a betrayer. Call it my fame or infamy, they discuss my name surreptitiously),” he said to vent out his agony without making any direct reference to the protest by top wrestlers including Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Mallik and Bajrang Punia seeking his arrest.
He sought to close the controversy surrounding him by quoting a couplet from Ramcharitmanas: Huiye wahi jo Ram rachi rakha, ko kari tarak badhavai sakha (everything will happen as per the wishes of Lord Ram).googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
Addressing a rally organised by BJP in Gonda to mark the completion of nine years of Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the beleaguered BJP MP, however, avoided the name of the party from which he would contest the next election.
As per the speculations, the BJP top brass is not very enthusiastic about fielding him from Kaiserganj in 2024 owing to the ongoing controversy involving him as a WFI chief.
At the same time, the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s support to the wrestlers has sent across a clear message to the strongman of Gonda that it would not be feasible for him to get a ticket from SP in 2024.
ALSO READ | Wrestlers say WFI chief pressurising victims; to resume protest if no action is taken by June 15
After a guarded silence over the wrestlers’ protest, Akhilesh recently demanded justice for the wrestlers who have been protesting against the WFI chief.
Singh, a six-time Lok Sabha member, five times from BJP and once from SP, has also represented Gonda in 1991 and 1999.
In the 2009 parliamentary elections, he was elected from Kaiserganj on an SP ticket.
Having come to attend the Gonda rally while holding a 25-km roadshow in his bastion in a show of strength and popularity, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh focussed his address more on the alleged shortcomings of Congress rule since independence.
Listing out the accomplishments of the Modi government, Singh slammed the previous Congress governments for conspiring to obstruct the verdict in favour of the Ram Temple at the Babri masjid site.
He also held the grand old party responsible for the encroachment of swathes of the country’s land by Pakistan and China in 1948 and 1962 respectively. “This would have never been possible in Modi’s India,” said Singh.
ALSO READ | “We will participate in Asian Games only when all our issues get resolved”: Sakshi Malik
He said that Modi and Shah had realised the slogan: Paida Hue the Jahan Mookherjee, Who Kashmir Humara hai (the land of Shayam Prasad Mookherjee belongs to us).
Recalling the emergency days, he narrated how he was incarcerated in 1975 by the then Congress dispensation led by PM Indira Gandhi.
The roadshow started at his residence in Vaishnoharpur and ended at the rally venue Raghuraj Sharan Singh Degree College (owned by him) in Colonelganj where the rally was organised.
Last week, a poster mentioning Singh as the convener of the Sunday rally and Madhya Pradesh higher education minister Mohan Yadav as chief guest of the event was released on social media.
Earlier, Singh had to cancel his proposed rally in Ayodhya scheduled for June 5 possibly after the directives from the BJP top brass. Though Singh had then maintained that he cancelled the rally since the matter pertaining to allegations of sexual harassment against him by the protesting wrestlers was pending an ongoing probe.
