Singh's tryst with BJP may not be smooth in Amethi

Former Congress leader Sanjay Singh, who has changed parties five times in his three-decade-long political career, may not have smooth sailing in the BJP.

A member of the Amethi royal family, Sanjay Singh, who was considered to be close to the Gandhi family, had resigned from the Congress and Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. He and his second wife Amita Singh, also a Congress leader, joined the BJP.

The duo, however, may face problems in their home town as Singh's estranged first wife Garima Singh was the BJP MLA from Amethi. Garima had defeated Amita Singh in Amethi in the 2017 assembly polls.

According to sources close to Garima Singh, the local BJP leaders, who had been relentlessly fighting Sanjay and Amita and ultimately managed to wrest the Amethi assembly seat for the saffron party, were not happy at their joining the BJP. "Amita and Garima do not see eye to eye," said a local scribe while speaking to DH over the phone.

About five years ago, supporters of Sanjay Singh and Garima had clashed at the Palace at Amethi in which a police constable had been killed and several others injured. Garima Singh claimed that she continued to be the legal wife of Sanjay Singh as she had not been divorced.

The local Congress leaders said that Sanjay and Amita did not wield the same influence in the area as before.

Sanjay Singh, who had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha poll from Sultanpur, the neighbouring constituency of Amethi, against BJP leader Maneka Gandhi, lost his security deposit and was relegated to third place. Earlier Amita Singh lost to Garima in 2017 state assembly polls and was pushed to the third spot.

Sanjay Singh, who began his political career with Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi in 1977, had first left the Congress in 1989 and joined Janata Dal. He shifted to Samajwadi Janata Party (SJP) a year later. Sanjay joined the BJP in 1998. He returned to Congress in 2003 and won LS poll from Sultanpur in 2009.