Denied ticket, MLA from Bairia Surendra Singh says he will defeat BJP

The voluble former BJP leader Surendra Singh, who has often courted controversy with his statements, on Saturday vowed to defeat the party in the Bairia seat after being denied a ticket in Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

Though Singh had earlier announced that he would contest as an Independent from the Bairia constituency that he represented in the current Assembly, he has now joined the Bihar-centric Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) which has nominated him from the seat.

Singh had triggered controversies in the past with his remarks like "people who did not say Bharat Mata ki Jai are Pakistanis" and that ''India will become a Hindu nation by 2024".

An agitated Singh alleged that the BJP leadership involved in ticket distribution sometimes acts without being aware of the ground realities.

He claimed that a party only gives a symbol while the voters prefer those who "live in their heart" and asserted that people of his constituency Bairia will elect him for the work done by him in the last five years.

Party se matlab bas nishan bhar ka hota hai, par janta usko vote deti hai jo logon ke dil main basta hai (Party is only meant for getting a symbol but people vote for the person who lives in their heart), Singh told PTI.

People (of BJP) sitting in air-conditioned rooms in Delhi and talk of morals and hard work. They are not aware of the ground realities, Singh fumed. Despite his anger against the BJP, Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath remain his idols.

I have not said anything against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath ever. They are taking the country on the right path and I see them as my mentors, he said.

Singh is pitted against minister Anand Swaroop Shukla of BJP and former MLA Jai Prakash Anchal from the Samajwadi Party in the Bairia seat.

Vikassheel Insan Party is part of the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar but is contesting the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on its own.

Though speculation was rife that Singh had sought time from Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, he dismissed it.

I never sought time from any leader. I have confidence in the people of my area who have taken an oath to elect me to power again, Singh said.

According to political experts, the Bairia assembly constituency, which has a large number of Yadav and Kshatriya votes, may prove difficult for the BJP in the UP's caste-centric politics, due to the presence of Surendra Singh, who is a Kshatriya.

Singh, however, refuses to be branded only as a Kshatriya leader.

I have broken the caste equation by working for everyone. In the last five years, I have organised marriages of 751 girls from poor families of all castes and religions. I have worked to provide relief to those affected by floods and other natural calamities in my constituency.

"I believe that that people support me for the work I have done and not for the party I was associated with, he said.

Singh, who was in Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), refused to comment on the BJP's prospects in the ongoing election in Uttar Pradesh.

I am a small worker who joined politics for the uplift of people in my area. I don't know what will happen to BJP in UP but I can say that BJP will lose its seat in Bairia, Singh said.

The seat along with other constituencies in Ballia will go to vote in the sixth phase on March 3.