Dinesh Pratap Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate from Rae Bareli has asked the constituency’s people to turn to their elected representative, Rahul Gandhi from now on.
In a letter addressed to the media, Singh wrote that he is asking for Saturday and Sunday to carry out his familial responsibilities, as he has been continuously serving people from 2019 to 2024.
“My family responsibilities have lagged,” wrote Singh, asking for time off to marry off his two daughters. “I will be available on other days like always”, he said. “Wherever my constructive assistance is required, I shall give it”, he said.
Singh is a minister of state (independent charge) of horticulture and agricultural distribution in the current state government.
In a veiled jibe at Gandhi, he said, he hoped that every Saturday and Sunday, the newly elected MP would be available to resolve matters, from the revenue official to the district magistrate, from the inspector to the superintendent of police level.
Singh, who polled 2.9 lakh votes against Gandhi’s 6.8 lakh, thanked those who voted for him. He also challenged Gandhi to face him only as a Congress candidate (not as part of an alliance) and get three lakh votes. His votes, Singh said, were a result of his ‘sewa’ amidst the ‘negative’ atmosphere created by the opposition in the state.
He also promised to address all the confusion being spread about the central and the state governments, and about his party’s workers.
“I am not a national leader like you, but just an ordinary party worker who…forced you to go from booth to booth on polling day…(Gandhi) scared till the very end about whether or not you would win the election.”
Singh signed off by asking Gandhi to remember that even his grandmother, Indira Gandhi, lost in Rae Bareli (1977) and that he himself had lost in Amethi (2019).