Rajkumari Ratna Singh, the three-time former Congress MP from Pratapgarh, may join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday, according to sources. She may join BJP in Pratagarh in the presence of Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath. According to reports, Ratna Singh could well join the party, along with her supporters, at CM Adityanath's rally. Adityanath is scheduled to address the public meeting at Gadhwa Inter College ground in Pratapgarh, which is among the 11 assembly seats due for the bypolls on October 21.
Ratna Singh, the former Congress MP and an erstwhile royal from Kalakankar in Pratapgarh, enjoys popularity in in the region. Her father Dinesh Singh was a minister in the Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi governments.
Sources said that a senior Congress leader from the area was making a last-ditch attempt to persuade the former MP not to cross over to the BJP.
BJP’s Rajkumar Pal is contesting the assembly seat on ally Apna Dal (S) ticket. Congress has fieled Neeraj Tripathi from the seat. The Samajwadi Party has fielded Brijesh Patel, son of Ram Chandra Verma, an influential Kurmi leader who was an associate of Apna Dal founder Sone Lal Patel.