The six Assembly constituencies in Kushinagar district are witnessing the battle of the turncoats, one of them a “Raja Saheb” whose family history features a murder mystery and the other the face of OBCs in Uttar Pradesh.
Every morning, large crowds from across the district gather at the Padrauna palace of Ratanjit Pratap Narain “RPN” Singh, former junior home minister in the Manmohan Singh government who recently left the Congress for the BJP.
“The ants go where the sugar is,” said a shopkeeper at the gate of the palace dismissively, insisting that what draws the crowds is not political loyalty but glamour, mystery and the need to seek favours.
RPN, whose father C.P.N. Singh was allegedly shot dead in the palace — following which the dead man’s brother was lynched on the lawns — rarely stayed here for any length of time before this election. So his presence has stoked popular curiosity.
A former MLA from Padrauna and former MP from Kushinagar (2009-14), RPN is not contesting this time but campaigning for BJP candidates across the district. This has set up a “prestige fight” with Swami Prasad Maurya, who was a senior minister in the Yogi Adityanath government before recently defecting to the Samajwadi Party along with a host of other OBC leaders of the BJP.
Maurya is contesting from the district and is, like RPN, criss-crossing Kushinagar campaigning for his party candidates. In 2009, RPN was elected Congress MP from Kushinagar, defeating then BSP candidate Maurya by only 21,000 votes.
“I have been campaigning for my party candidates without a break for hours every day. On Friday, I did a road show for six hours,” RPN told The Telegraph on the lawns of his palace on Saturday morning while intermittently accepting greetings from people queuing to meet him.
Some of the visitors gave him feedback from the ground, some touched his feet and some were glad to just show their face to him.
“RPN doesn’t live here. He used to come here from Delhi during his own election campaigns in the past,” said the shopkeeper, who wouldn't give his name.
“This is the first time he is here campaigning and using his resources for others. Although I shall vote for the BJP’s Manish Jaiswal (in Padrauna), we cannot say who will win, for Vikram Yadav of the Samajwadi Party is posing a tough challenge. After all, Maurya is campaigning for him.”
He added: “However, I have heard the RSS is campaigning hard; they have not left everything to RPN.”
According to local oral history, Hom Mall, king of Majhauli in Deoria district, had granted his servant and RPN’s ancestor Bhupal Rai five villages in AD 1650. In 1919, the then British government conferred the title of Raja Bahadur on Rai's descendant Brij Narain Singh.
RPN broke with 50 years of family tradition of loyalty to the Nehru-Gandhis and joined the BJP on January 25 this year. He is expected to be inducted into the Narendra Modi government if he proves his worth in the Assembly elections.
“Ratanjit, who belongs to the (OBC) Kurmi caste, is competing with OBC leader Maurya (from the Koiri caste) who left the BJP a few days before RPN joined it,” said Sumer Singh, a resident of Padrauna, 21km east of Kushinagar town where Gautam Buddha had attended Mahaparinirvana.
“Maurya, who was labour minister in the Adityanath government and is the sitting MLA from Padrauna, is a candidate from Fazilnagar. He has been portraying the BJP as anti-OBC and anti-Dalit.”
Maurya said: “I can say the Samajwadis will win most of the seats here. RPN’s identity is that of a rich heir of a family steeped in mystery. But the kings are gone and their mysteries don’t excite people who are struggling against rising prices, dictatorial rule and decades of exploitation under zamindars.”
RPN’s father CPN was junior defence minister in 1989 when he was allegedly shot inside the palace. According to lore, CPN's supporters, who heard the gunshots from the lawns, dragged the dead man’s younger brother BPN out and lynched him, accusing him of the alleged murder. Many unsubstantiated stories swirl around the incident.
Union ministers Amit Shah, Anurag Thakur and Smriti Irani, BJP president J.P. Nadda, Adiyanath and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan have visited Kushinagar in the past few days.
An RSS source in Kushinagar said BJP ministers from Bihar were campaigning here and the Sangh's officials were working round the clock.
Samajwadi president Akhilesh, however, campaigned in the district for the first time on Sunday, while Mayawati (BSP) and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (Congress) had not visited Kushinagar till Sunday. This while the BJP has been campaigning village to village and door to door.
Kushinagar resident Mahesh Chandra Tripathi said: “It’s a clash between two big leaders. Maurya may be lacking in micromanagement and star power but has a hold on the masses. He is on a par with the king here.”
He said that while the results were uncertain, the Samajwadi candidates were “fighting very well” despite Akhilesh being mostly missing from here.
Kushinagar votes on March 3.
