Smriti Irani, the newly elected MP from Amethi rushed to her constituency on Sunday afternoon to pay her last respects to BJP worker Surendra Singh who was shot dead on Saturday night. Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed the state’s Director General of Police to ensure that the culprits are nabbed within 12 hours.
Singh was a former pradhan of the village of Barauliya—one of the two that had been adopted by former defence minister Manohar Parikkar under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. During her election campaign, Irani had visited the village and thanked its people for having given her the opportunity to serve them. She had mentioned Singh in her brief speech.
Singh’s son Abhay Pratap said, “My father was instrumental in the adoption of this village by Didiji (Irani). A lot of development work had been done here. The Congress has been unable to digest the loss of its candidate.” According to Abhay, his father was a simple man who had joined the BJP’s victory celebrations on Saturday evening. “The miscreants were probably lying in wait for him”, Abhay told THE WEEK.
Irani had wrestled Amethi in one of the biggest contests of the just concluded Lok Sabha elections by defeating Congress president Rahul Gandhi by 55,000 votes. This was her second outing from the constituency where she first fought from in 2014, when she lost to Gandhi by over one lakh votes.
The district BJP machinery though not completely sure, points to political rivalry as a possible motive for the murder. Govind Singh, another aide of Irani in Amethi says that there is no clarity on what had happened. “Circumstantial evidence points to the possibility (of political rivalry). There were three or four men getting a puncture repaired when Singh retired for the night. The electricity then went off and the family heard gun shots”. This happened after 11.30pm on Saturday.
Singh was rushed to the district hospital in Rae Bareli from where he was referred to the state capital Lucknow’s Trauma Centre where he was declared brought dead.
Though not a top leader at the district, Singh was one of the many who had helped Irani make inroads in the villages of Amethi after her loss in 2014. Govind Singh describes him as a ‘pillar’ of the party. “He was a slightly built man but this belied his vast influence which spread to many of the adjoining villages. He had a deep connection with people. He had been with the party since 1977. This is a big loss for us,” said Singh.
There is great disappointment within the Congress party in over the loss in Amethi, which had only twice, since 1952 chosen non-Congress MPs to represent it. However, within the party there is also the realisation that Amethi was lost due to over confidence while Irani was nurturing it.
Fawad Hussain, a district spokesperson of the Congress told THE WEEK, “The FIR has been registered against unknown miscreants. We condemn the murder. It is too early to conclude what might have been behind it". Some other Congress workers that THE WEEK reached out to said that Singh was a local strong man who was largely seen as the actual power behind Baraulia’s present pradhan. “He was very influential in the village and beyond. The murder could have been the result of personal enmity”, said one local worker.
Meanwhile, Irani, who shouldered Singh’s bier and attended his last rites, has assured his family that she would stand by them.
