Kripashankar Singh, who is on the BJP’s first list of candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, was a former Minister in the Congress-led government in Maharashtra. File
| Photo Credit: Vivek Bendre
The list of 195 names announced by the BJP in its first list of candidates was not one that created shock waves in its unexpectedness, but one name did create a frisson of interest, tickling the memory of those who followed Maharashtra politics in the 1990s and 2000s, that of Kripashankar Singh.
Mr. Singh, a former Minister in the Congress-led government in Maharashtra, has been fielded by the BJP from Jaunpur (his birth place) in Uttar Pradesh, a return of the native of a kind perhaps only possible in Indian politics.
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Of humble beginnings, Mr. Singh moved to Mumbai from Jaunpur in the 1980s having failed to clear his Class XII exams and tried his hand at various jobs, including selling vegetables and milk and working in a pharmaceutical firm as a packer. It is said by those in the know that he grew close to former President Pratibha Patil when she used to hold sway over Maharashtra Congress, and in 1988 she appointed him a secretary in the State. Mumbai, a city teeming with migrants from across the country, has a strong presence of north Indians, looking for a leadership amid the Shiv Sena’s son of the soil politics, and for the Congress, Mr. Singh filled that void. His rise was swift and he grew to be a Minister of State for Home in the Congress- led Maharashtra government in 1999, and head of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee between 2007 and 2011.
Disproportionate assets case
In 2011 a Public Interest Litigation petition was filed against him alleging that he and his family had amassed assets disproportionate to their income to the tune of ₹230 crores. Cases piled up, and he has been under investigation by Central agencies since. He started to fade out of the Congress, and finally left the party ostensibly opposing its views on the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. He joined the BJP in 2021, and was made State unit vice-president after that.
For the BJP, which has a lack of leaders who can appeal to north Indian voters in the city, Mr. Singh has been a good addition. “Our other north Indian leaders in the city don’t have the clout to even get five votes together, while Kripashankar Singh has good connections both in Mumbai and in Jaunpur,” said a source in Mumbai BJP.
There is also talk that with Mr. Singh moving to Jaunpur, his daughter Sunita Singh may be considered for a ticket during the Maharashtra Assembly election. The 72-year-old Mr. Singh has created a flutter in what was an otherwise status-quoist list.
