Lucknow: Rae Bareli, the Parliamentary constituency of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is once again in limelight after the lone sitting party MLA in the constituency Aditi Singh, violating the party directive, joined the special session of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on the occasion of 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on Wednesday.
Singh's move has left the Congress leadership baffled as it implies that the party MLA is moving closer to the BJP, on the day when party general secretary (Uttar Pradesh east) Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was leading a silent padyatra in the state capital.The leader had also boycotted the padyatra of the Congress thus giving a clear message to the party leadership.
She is the third Congress leader of Rae Bareli after MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh and his MLA brother Rakesh Pratap Singh joined the BJP before the Lok Sabha polls.
In the recently held Lok Sabha polls, the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi lost the Amethi seat to Union Minister Smriti Irani but in Rae Bareli, Sonia Gandhi managed to retain the seat by fighting against her former party MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh.
Aditi Singh is said to have moved closer to the BJP after the death of her father and former Independent MLA Akhilesh Singh. She is also close to a BJP leader of Punjab, which could be another reason for her attachment to the saffron party.
According to sources, when her father Akhilesh Singh passed away, senior BJP leaders went to meet her and Prime Minister Narendra Modi called her to convey his condolence.
Congress legislature party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu, while talking to UNI on Thursday, said they are discussing the issue arising after the surprise move of Aditi Singh."We are not in a hurry to take any action against her," was the only reply on the violation of the Rae Bareli MLA.
However, another senior party leader told this agency that as the matter is related to Rae Bareli hence any decision would only be taken by party president Sonia Gandhi and none else.
On Wednesday, Aditi Singh entered the state assembly at around 1900 hrs and took her seat at the opposition side and took to the floor at 1930 hrs and addressed the house.
In her speech she supported Modi government's decision to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. ''The BJP Government had shown the political will to scrap this temporary act which is commendable,'' the Congress MLA said.
"It is my duty to raise the voice of my voters. I have never been afraid of keeping my words at the appropriate platform," she said while reacting on why she was in the assembly despite her party boycotting it.
"There is several problems of the people, including drinking water and poverty. Besides more work should be done for solar and alternative energy and promote rain water harvesting," she said.
Aditi also said that her decision to attend the special session was her own and now what action is taken by the party, she will happily accept.
Mr Lallu had earlier said the Congress had boycotted the special session questioning as why it was held. "Is BJP wants to project itself as true follower of Gandhi ji through this session?," he asked.
"In fact, the BJP is using Gandhi ji's name to enter into a record book. This is the only motive of the BJP government," he added.
"Gandhi's statues were being vandalised in the state while temples of the Mahatma's assassin were constructed and he was glorified. The BJP is now indulging in tokenism to cleanse its image," Lallu pointed out.
With Aditi attending the special session, the political grape wine is agog with rumours that she might join BJP.(UNI)
