The Congress’s Sitapur MP Rakesh Rathore who was arrested in a rape case on Thursday had an eventful run with all main political events in Uttar Pradesh.
The 61-year-old Different Backward Class (OBC) chief from the Teli group began his political profession with the Bahujan Samaj Get together (BSP), contesting his first election on the celebration’s ticket from Sitapur within the 2007 Meeting elections. He, nevertheless, misplaced by 1,867 votes to the Samajwadi Get together’s (SP) Radhey Shyam Jaiswal.
Forward of the 2017 Meeting polls, Rathore joined the BJP and gained Sitapur for the celebration, ending Jaiswal’s profitable run. Nonetheless, his relationship with the celebration began souring two years later.
“He began making feedback in opposition to the BJP organisation and Yogi Adityanath authorities. The celebration stopped inviting him to organisational conferences. When he focused the BJP authorities on Covid-19 administration in Could 2021, it turned clear that the celebration wouldn’t repeatedly give him a ticket within the 2022 polls,” stated a BJP chief in Sitapur. In the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, Rathore expressed issues about pandemic administration within the state and stated he feared he could be charged with sedition for talking up.
Sensing that the BJP was not keen to subject him within the 2022 Meeting polls, Rathored jumped ship to the SP together with a number of different outstanding OBC leaders. Earlier than leaving, he fired a parting shot on the BJP saying it was working with an “upper-caste mindset”.
However it didn’t work out as deliberate. The SP management denied him a ticket from Sitapur within the 2022 Meeting polls. The BJP fielded his namesake, Rakesh Rathore “Guru”, from Sitapur. Guru who’s from the Teli caste ended up defeating SP’s Jaiswal to wrest management of the constituency. Guru was subsequently inducted into the federal government as Minister of State for City Growth, City Employment, and Poverty Alleviation. “Guru was given a ticket as a result of the celebration needed to groom an OBC chief from the Teli group right here,” stated a BJP chief.
He nonetheless caught round within the SP and demanded a celebration ticket within the Sitapur Nagar Palika chairman elections the next yr. Rebuffed as soon as extra, Rathore give up the celebration and joined the Congress in June 2023. Within the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, by which the Congress and the SP contested in an alliance, the previous fielded him from Sitapur regardless of opposition from the native SP unit.
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This time, Rathore managed to win, defeating the BJP’s Rajesh Verma by 89,641 votes amid a consolidation of the Scheduled Caste Pasi and Muslim votes. It was Verma who had helped Rathore get his first Meeting election ticket from BSP in 2007 and from the BJP in 2017, sources stated. Verma was the BSP’s Sitapur MP on the time of the 2007 Meeting polls and the BJP MP in 2017.
Weeks after the Lok Sabha polls, Rathore left the Congress red-faced when he wrote to celebration chief Mallikarjun Kharge, accusing celebration colleague Sanjay Dixit of casteism and humiliating him. Rathore alleged he was “pushed” and “humiliated” by Dixit, who works within the Congress’s “conflict room” in UP.
“Rathore belongs to the Teli caste who’re small in quantity in your entire constituency. The Pasi group in 2024 backed the SP and the Congress, particularly on the narrative across the Structure. The Pasi group in Sitapur is about seven lakh, the best amongst SCs within the constituency. Their assist to the alliance helped Rathore turn out to be an MP,” stated a Congress chief.
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Rathore shaped the “Tailik Mahasangh” after he turned the Sitapur MLA in 2017 to unfold social and political consciousness among the many Teli group. At current, the organisation is current in almost 30 districts of Uttar Pradesh. A supply stated the lady who accused Rathore of too had served as a functionary within the Tailik Mahasangh. An FIR was registered in opposition to Rathore on January 17 after the complainant accused him of rape on the bottom of false promise of marriage. The MP was arrested after the Allahabad Excessive Court docket on Wednesday rejected his anticipatory bail utility.
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