Amethi (UP) : BJP’s coup de maitre fielding Garima Singh, the estranged first wife of Sanjay Singh, might turn the fight for the prestigious Amethi Assembly seat into a ‘rani versus rani’ affair with the Congress leader’s present wife Ameeta deciding to throw her hat in the ring.
BJP fielded Garima from Amethi, ostensibly to reap the sympathy for her and redeem her name and position in the royal family.
Samajwadi Party, which got the seat under a seat sharing arrangement with Congress, gave ticket to sitting MLA and controversial leader Gayatri Prajapati in the Congress bastion, leaving Ameeta in the lurch.
Ameeta, however, is in no mood to relent and has let it known to her party leadership that she has worked hard for so long and will not quit the fray.
“Amethi is my family and my home and I cannot leave it…I will contest from here,” she said, adding that she had been working hard among the electorate since long and was on a very strong footing.
“I have talked to senior Congress leaders and told them about the ground reality here and have requested them to do the needful as the seat also falls in the parliamentary constituency of party Vice President Rahul Gandhi,” she said.
Ameeta minced no words in condemning BJP for putting up Garima from here.
“BJP has resorted to petty politics, leaving seniors out and giving ticket to someone who has no recognition in the region; people here have neither seen her nor has she seen them for years,” she said.
“I do not have any worry…all this is BJP’s politics after it played the dirty game of snatching the IIIT and Paper Mill (from Amethi),” she said, adding its candidate has no experience in politics nor has ever come in public glare.
Garima (60) will be making her first political venture in the Assembly polls.
The saffron party has put its bet on Garima for a bigger battle in 2019 when the party plans to cause a major upset against Rahul Gandhi for which Union minister Smriti Irani is also working hard. —PTI
