Kripa Shankar Singh, a former Congress leader and minister in Maharashtra's Congress government, ventured into his birthplace's politics in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, for the first time in his four-decade political career. Running on a BJP ticket, Singh was defeated by the Samajwadi Party candidate.
The SP candidate, Babu Singh Kushwaha, secured 509,130 votes, while Kripa Shankar Singh managed to garner 409,795 votes, resulting in a defeat by a margin of 99,335 votes.
Who is Kripa Shankar Singh?
Kripa Shankar Singh hails from a prominent Rajput family in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. He migrated to Mumbai in the 1980s after failing to clear his class XII exams, taking on various odd jobs to make ends meet as a migrant. His firsthand experience with the challenges faced by migrants inspired him to enter politics.
Political Career
Singh joined the Indian National Congress and was later appointed as secretary in the Maharashtra Congress by former president Pratibha Patel. He rose through the ranks to become a significant figure by the 2004 elections when he was appointed as Minister of State for Home in the first Vilasrao Deshmukh ministry, serving from October 1999 to January 2003. He was elected as an MLA from Vile Parle in 1999 and from the newly created Kalina constituency in 2009 but came third in the 2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election.
Legal Issues and Shift to BJP
In 2012, while serving as the Mumbai Congress chief, Singh was booked for disproportionate assets amounting to Rs 230 crore and came under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate. He left the Indian National Congress in 2019 due to disagreements over the party’s stance on Jammu and Kashmir and leadership issues.
Despite ongoing legal cases, Singh joined the BJP in 2021 and became the party’s state unit vice-president. In March 2024, he was named as the BJP candidate from Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh.
The Defeat
Despite being considered close to PM Modi and Amit Shah, Singh lost to the Samajwadi Party candidate in Jaunpur. His defeat was attributed to being perceived as an "outsider" who was "air-dropped" into local politics, potentially causing local BJP cadres to work against him. This scenario was observed in other seats in Uttar Pradesh, where the INDIA bloc outmaneuvered the BJP-led NDA.