Summary:
I have worked like a loyal soldier of Congress in Rae Bareli. Hence I joined BJP and would be happy to be fielded by them,” said Dinesh Singh, who had defected from Congress to join BJP last year.“We have shortlisted a few names for Rae Bareli. PM had even borrowed three catchphrases from Vishwas’ poetry — Sanskriti Vikrti, prakriti Goli aur gali se nahi (for Kashmir) and budh aur yudh,” said a source close to Vishwas. But, there was no interest for any projects by the Gandhi family members. LUCKNOW: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to make his maiden visit to the Gandhi family bastion Rae Bareli on December 16, the BJP is learnt to be quietly making overtures to rebel Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Kumar Vishwas and Sonia Gandhi’s former confidante Dinesh Singh as 2019 Lok Sabha probables for the constituency.Rae Bareli has an equal distribution of Brahmins and OBCs (Kurmi Patels).While Vishwas is a Brahmin, Dinesh Singh, also an MLC, has been a popular figure in the rural precincts of Rae Bareli in the last decade.The reported move by the saffron party comes as it intends to make inroads in Gandhi pocket borough of Rae Bareli and Amethi amid a generous push by several Union ministers including Smriti Irani, Manoj Sinha and Arun Jaitley While Kumar Vishwas was unavailable for comments as he was busy shooting for a television serial, Dinesh Singh told TOI: “I nurtured several Vidhan Sabha constituencies like Salone and Tiloi in Amethi since I was an MLC there..