A day after Congress listed him as a star campaigner for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, senior leader RPN Singh on Tuesday ended speculation about his political future by quitting the party to join the rival BJP.
Singh, who was Congress in-charge of Jharkhand, sent his resignation letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi thanking her for giving him an opportunity to serve the nation, people and the party. Hours after his quitting, Congress appointed Avinash Pande as party in-charge in Jharkhand.
"Today, at a time, we are celebrating the formation of our great Republic, I begin a new chapter in my political journey. Jai Hind," he tweeted, sharing the resignation letter.
He is the second prominent Congress leader in UP to join the BJP after Jitin Prasada, who was made a Minister in Yogi Adityanath government. Singh along with Prasada and Jyotiraditya Scindia, who became a Union Minister and was present at the function to induct Singh into BJP, were considered close to Rahul Gandhi.
"I spent 32 years in one political party. But that party has not remained the same as it was before. I will work as a 'Karyakarta' (party worker) towards fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dreams for India," Singh said as he joined the BJP in the presence of UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, who is UP in-charge, Anurag Thakur and Scindia among others.
Congress hit back at him with party spokespersons Supriya Shrinate and Gourav Vallabh saying that there is a need for courage and commitment to ideology to fight the battle the party is lodging against the government. Shrinate said, "I don't think this (fight against the BJP) is not meant for the coward. We wish him the best."
Singh (58), who was Minister of State Minister of State in Manmohan Singh government in 2009 and held portfolios like Road, Transport and Highways, Petroleum and Home Affairs, may be fielded as the BJP candidate against Samajwadi Party's Swami Prasad Maurya, a BJP Minister who had defected recently from Padrauna. Singh had represented Padrauna between 1996 and 2009 before he became a Lok Sabha MP from Kushi Nagar. However, he could not retain in the next elections and lost in 2019 too.
Shrinate told reporters the kind of battle of ideology the Congress is putting across the country and especially in UP is a battle against the government's resources, agencies and its ideology. To fight a battle as strongly pitched like this, she said, one needs courage and a lot of dedication.
Vallabh said those who left the party did not have the courage or commitment to be part of this "He (RPN) didn't have that commitment that the Congress workers are showing in this battle," he told reporters.
Singh was UP Youth Congress president between 1997 and 1999 and an AICC Secretary between 2003 and 2006.
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