Sanjay Singh may not have smooth sailing in BJP

Former Congress leader Sanjay Singh, who has changed parties five times in his three-decade long political career, may not have a 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 the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

He and his second wife Amita Singh, also a Congress leader, have joined the BJP.

The duo, however, may face problems in their home town given the fact that Singh's estranged first wife Garima Singh was is the BJP MLA from Amethi.

Garima had defeated Amita Singh in Amethi in the 2017 Assembly polls— Amita was pushed to the third spot.

According to the sources close to Garima, 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 Sanjay and Amita joining the BJP.

"Amita and Garima do not see eye to eye," said a local scribe while speaking to DH over telephone.

About five years ago, the supporters of Sanjay and Garima had clashed over the Palace at Amethi in which a police constable had been killed and several others injured.

Garima claimed that she continues to be the legal wife of Sanjay Singh as she had not been divorced.

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

Sanjay Singh contested the 2019 Lok Sabha poll from Sultanpur— the neighbouring constituency of Amethi— against former Union minister and BJP leader Maneka Gandhi and lost his security deposit.

He was relegated to the third place.

Sanjay Singh, who began his political career with Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi in 1977, had first left the Congress in 1989 and joined the Janata Dal.

He shifted to the Samajwadi Janata Party a year later. Sanjay joined the BJP in 1998 but returned to the Congress in 2003 and won the Lok Sabha poll from Sultanpur in 2009.