UP Elections 2022: Star campaigner of Congress and close aide of Gandhis RPN Singh joins BJP; watch video

Lucknow: In a big blow to already sulking congress, former union minister and Rahul Gandhi loyalist RPN Singh has resigned from party. RPN's name figured in the recently announced list of 30 star campaigners for UP assembly polls.

On Tuesday, RPN Singh sent his resignation letter to congress national president Sonia Gandhi and joined BJP in the evening. Four times legislator and once MP from Padrauna, UP, RPN Singh was not happy with congress for the last few months. He was not attending party meetings in UP and was last seen in the Gorakhpur rally of Priyanka Gandhi two months back.

It may be mentioned that there prominent youth leaders of congress including RPN have left party in the recent past. All these were loyalist of Gandhi family. Earlier in July last year, former union minister Jitin Prasad had left congress to join BJP. Jitin was made cabinet minister in Yogi government after he left congress. Another old Gandhi family loyalist Lalitesh Pati Tripathi had also resigned from congress in November last year and joined Trinamool Congress party.

RPN who belonged to ex-royal family of Padrauna was elected legislator in 1996, 1998, 2002 and 2007 assembly polls. He was elected MP from Padrauna in 2009 and was made union minister. However he faced defeat in 2014 and 2019 parliament elections.

According to congress leaders, Swami Prasad Maurya who has recently joined Samajwadi Party leaving BJP had been a strong opponent of RPN in the local politics of east UP and particularly Padrauna. Currently Maurya is a legislator from Padrauna. After his leaving BJP, the party was making efforts to rope in RPN to it's fold. RPN being from backward Kurmi community would boost BJP's prospects among this dominant section of UP.