Amethi, the Congress bastion in Uttar Pradesh, is going to witness a mixture of emotions in this Assembly elections. And now there seems to be more to it. Sanjay Sinh, 70, a Congress turncoat will be contesting the polls from here on a BJP ticket. Sinh will be contesting for the first time in 33 years. The ‘Raja of Amethi’, Sinh is a former Member of Parliament (MP) and is set to return to politics after almost three decades, triggering a feud between his two wives. Although the seat in Amethi has seen shifts, several times, it’s true that it belongs to no particular party and has a strange mixture of candidates every time. And this time it’s no different either.
Sanjay Sinh will be contesting against Congress candidate and party-hopper, Ashish Shukla.
Who is Sanjay Sinh?
Hailing from the erstwhile Royal family of Amethi, Sanjay Sinh is called the Raja of Amethi. Sinh, who had a close association with the Nehru-Gandhi family, was a former Congress stalwart and later joined the BJP. Over the last three decades, he served as Union Minister and state minister in successive Congress-led governments.
Following the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Sultanpur, he and his second wife, Ameeta Singh left the Congress to join the BJP. Funnily, he has always been caught up in a family feud, when in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, both his wives decided to contest against each other. While, Garima, his first wife contested from BJP, Ameeta fought on Congress’ ticket. Garima had won the elections.
Sanjay Sinh claims that it was his father, Rananjay Sinh, who gave the Amethi seat to the Gandhis. Rananjay had won the first election after Independence from the Amethi seat as an independent candidate.
In 1985, Sinh won by a record 98 per cent from Congress. In 1989, he lost as a Janata Dal candidate. Later in 1999, he lost the general elections to Sonia Gandhi. In 2004, Sanjay and Ameeta again returned to the Congress and in 2019, he joined the BJP.
Relation with Gandhis
The Raja of Amethi, Sanjay Sinh was once considered close to Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi.
According to reports, his association with the Gandhi family shot him up the political ladder.
The Amethi area is said to have strong links with the Gandhi-Nehru family and at that time the neighbouring constituency of Rae Bareli was held by Sanjay's mother, Indira Gandhi. Sinh subsequently became a friend of Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded Sanjay as the representative for Amethi. Later, Sinh switched his allegiance to JD and BJP.
Following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, Satish Sharma from Congress was representing Amethi and neglecting his own constituents, which led them to flock to Sinh. Contesting the elections of 1999 as a BJP candidate and was defeated by the widow of Gandhi, Sonia.
