BJP Fields Hukum Singh’s Daughter Mriganka For Kairana Bypoll

Mriganka Singh, the daughter of late MP Hukum Singh, will be BJP’s candidate for the Lok Sabha bypoll  on 28 May.

(Photo: The Quint)

The BJP on Tuesday, 8 May announced that Mriganka Singh, the daughter of late MP Hukum Singh, would be its candidate for the Lok Sabha bypoll in Uttar Pradesh's Kairana. The Kairana Lok Sabha seat fell vacant due to the death of BJP MP Hukum Singh in February.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal has fielded Tabassum Begam, who is likely to emerge as a joint candidate of the opposition, to take on the BJP in Kairana.

The BJP also announced that Avani Singh, the wife of late MLA Lokendra Chauhan, will be its candidate from Noorpur in the state.

Madhav Lal Singh will be the party's candidate from Gomia in Jharkhand, Munni Devi from Tharali in Uttarakhand and Sujit Ghosh from Maheshtala in West Bengal.

The names for one Lok Sabha seat and four state assembly seats were finalised in the party central election committee on Tuesday, the BJP said in a statement.

The last date for filing of nomination for the two by-elections is 10 May.

Kairana Exodus Has Stopped: Singh

“My father had developed a bond with this constituency over almost 40 years. It had been a long association for him, and Kairana also happens to be his native place,” Mriganka Singh (57) told PTI in an earlier interview.

“I have spent time in Kairana, and would like to continue the legacy of my father,” she added.

Her father won seven assembly election before entering Lok Sabha in 2014.

Reminded that she had lost from the Kairana assembly seat in the 2017 state polls, she said, "I did lose the UP Assembly elections because of the polarisation which took place then, and also due to a division of votes."

But she said the Lok Saha constituency covers a much wider area, and the situation is different now. Kairana was the scene of a "Hindu exodus", a controversial claim made by Hukum Singh, pointing fingers at the Muslim population in the area. Later, he appeared to backtrack on his own assertion.

But the daughter implies it happened.

The exodus of Hindu families from Kairana has stopped. Before the 2017 UP Assembly elections, hundreds of Hindu families had fled from Kairana out of fear and harassment.

Mriganka Singh to PTI

"However, after the BJP government under Yogi Adityanath was formed, the law and order scenario in the region has improved. It is exemplary. At least five or six families, to my knowledge, have returned to Kairana," she said.

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