All the huge Thakur names in areas that vote within the closing 3 phases at the moment are with the birthday celebration, which include Brij Bhushan, Dhananjay, Raja Bhaiya, Brijesh Singh, Abhay Singh
WHEN records-sheeter-flesh presser Dhananjay Singh declared his help to the BJP inside the ongoing Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday, it marked
some other twist inside the tale of those polls, the birthday celebration and the Thakur network in Uttar Pradesh.
All inside the direction of the beyond month, Dhananjay’s spouse Srikala Reddy got the Jaunpur Lok Sabha price tag from the BSP, with the party losing its sitting MP Shyam Singh Yadav to accommodate her; he got bail in a kidnapping case, nearly simultaneously; then the BSP dropped Srikala as its candidate the day before the nomination cut-off date ended, and went lower back to Yadav; and within days, Dhananjay announced his aid for the BJP. Soon after, Srikala published a image on X meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
With this, BJP leaders say, the birthday celebration has all however secured the Jaunpur seat for its candidate Kripa Shankar Singh, who’s marking a go back to kingdom politics after an extended stint in Mumbai. Dhananjay is thought to have have an impact on over no longer simply Thakurs but also OBCs in Jaunpur and the adjoining Machhlishahr constituency.
The move additionally cleared any impression of a continuing fissure between the BJP and the Thakur network inside the nation, which become witnessed inside the first segment of the polls. This is sizeable as Thakurs dominate a few of the constituencies in central and jap UP, which vote within the 5th, 6th and seventh phases.
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Earlier, to quash resentment among Thakurs seen in west UP, over reportedly being “ignored” by using the BJP for tickets, the celebration did path correction by fielding network leaders in crucial seats which includes Kaiserganj, Rae Bareli and Mainpuri. From Kaiserganj, the BJP resisted opposition from inside ranks to field the son of senior leader Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, whom it needed to replace in the wake of fees of sexual harassment by means of ladies wrestlers.
Dinesh Pratap Singh and Jaiveer Singh are the Rae Bareli and Mainpuri candidates of the BJP, fielded against INDIA bloc leaders Rahul Gandhi and Dimple Yadav.
With Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself a Thakur, there have been murmurs of him being “left out” in the ticket distribution in west UP –which have now misplaced steam. Dinesh Singh is seen as near the CM.
The fact that Thakurs in japanese and crucial UP do no longer have fierce rivalry with a community, together with with Gujjars in west UP, additionally enables.
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Sources stated that, in reality, all dominant Thakur strongmen in politics in these parts are now directly or indirectly with the BJP. They include Brij Bhushan, whose clout runs in Gonda; Brijesh Singh in Varanasi location; Raghuraj Pratap Singh a.Okay.A ‘Raja Bhaiya’ in Pratapgarh vicinity; Dhananjay Singh of Jaunpur; and Abhay Singh of Ayodhya. While all of them belong to east UP, their impact runs past their regions.
Among them, best Brij Bhushan is visible as not in tune with Adityanath. The are in no way seen collectively in public, at the same time as the outgoing BJP MP never shies far from criticising the Adityanath authorities openly. At a gathering earlier this week, Brij Bhushan stated he turned into against “bulldozer policy”, a swipe on the Adityanath government having spark off the exercise of razing homes of alleged lawbreakers. A individual makes a assets “with quite a few hard work”, Brij Bhushan, who’s believed to revel in have an impact on amongst Thakurs and Kurmis in Gonda, Ayodhya, Barabanki, Basti, Balrampur and Sidharth Nagar, stated.
Brijesh Singh, a Varanasi-based mafia don, has by no means hid his allegiance with the BJP – and Adityanath particularly. He is out on bail given that August 2022, after receiving acquittal in maximum of the 35 cases of heinous costs towards him, together with murder. He had been arrested in 2008 by way of the Delhi Police.
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In 2016, Brijesh have become an Independent MLC after the BJP did not subject a candidate against him from Varanasi. In 2022, his wife Annapurna Singh gained the equal MLC seat in a surprise win towards a BJP candidate, placing off speculation approximately whose assist she loved.
Brijesh is thought to have affect amongst Thakurs and Bhumihars in Varanasi, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Ghazipur, Mau, Ballia and also in some districts of Bihar and Jharkhand.
Similarly, ‘Raja Bhaiya’, who has now gained the Kunda Assembly seat seven times consecutively, six of those times as an Independent, before he floated a celebration in 2022, is also believed to enjoy the blessings of Adityanath.
In 2013, whilst Raja Bhaiya, then a minister inside the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government, turned into booked for the murder of Deputy SP Zia-ul-Haq in Pratapgarh, Adityanath, then the Gorakhpur BJP MP, had gone towards the birthday party line to mention that Raja Bhaiya have been “falsely framed”.
Apart from the Akhilesh government, Raja Bhaiya has served as a minister inside the BJP governments of Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh, and SP authorities of Mulayam Singh Yadav. Earlier this year, Raja Bhaiya supported BJP applicants within the Rajya Sabha polls in UP.
He is seen as having impact amongst Thakurs and OBCs, which includes Yadavs and Kewats, in Pratapgarh and Kaushambi districts.
Dhananjay too has turned around between events, with never a protracted lull in his fortunes. A -time MLA (2002, 2007) and one-time MP (2009), he had 38 criminal cases lodged towards him until 2022, which include of murder, of which 10 are currently pending. During the BSP’s 2007-2012 regime, he turned into visible as loyal to CM Mayawati.
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Soon after the BJP got here to power in 2017, led via Adityanath, Dhananjay faced allegations of being part of a conspiracy in the back of the killing of gangster Munna Bajrangi in Baghpat jail in 2018. However, he got a smooth chit. He was additionally named within the daylight killing of Ajit Singh, a strongman of Azamgarh, in Lucknow in January 2022, and again got a smooth chit on prices of homicide and conspiracy, with most effective minor offences sustaining against him.
Abhay Singh, a pal-became-foe of Dhananjay, and the sitting SP MLA from Ayodhya’s Gosainganj constituency, has also declared his allegiance to the BJP. He voted for the BJP in this 12 months’s Rajya Sabha elections. Last month, his father and spouse joined the BJP.
Abhay is thought to be helping the BJP in Ayodhya, Ambedkar Nagar, Barabanki and Basti constituencies.