A meeting between Pankaj Singh, son of former BJP president Rajnath Singh, and jailed BSP MP Dhananjay Singh in Jaunpur jail on Saturday has kicked up a major controversy within the BJP.
While most leaders are questioning the meeting that has triggered off political speculations, Pankaj Singh told local reporters that it was a personal meeting and nothing political should be read into it.
There have been reports that Dhananjay Singh is keen to get his wife and brother to contest the upcoming assembly polls on a BJP ticket and Rajnath Singh has reportedly been pushing their case.
“The names of Dhananjay Singh’s kin would have been included in the first list of the party had he not been arrested a day before the announcement. Mr Rajnath Singh has been insisting on tickets for them even though a large section of the party is opposed to having any truck with the mafia don-turned-politician,” disclosed senior BJP leader.
According to sources, it is Dhananjay Singh’s frequent change of loyalty and his criminal antecedents that are responsible for a section of the BJP opposing him.
“He was with BJP when he was sent to jail with Raja Bhaiyya in 2002. Then he switched loyalty to the Samajwadi Party when it came to power in 2003. In 2007, he reverted back to the BJP and Rajnath Singh got him a ticket from JD(U) . In 2007, as soon as the BSP formed government, he merged the party into BSP and got his father elected on BSP ticket. Now that he has fallen out of favor with BSP, he wants a return ticket to BJP. In between he has also been hobnobbing with Amar Singh,” said a senior leader.