Rising star served notice: Is Congress MLA Aditi Singh about to jump ship?

Aditi Singh, a Congress MLA from the Raebareli Sadar constituency in Uttar Pradesh, is no stranger to controversy. Last year, social media had gone abuzz with “news” of her “marriage” to then Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Photographs featuring Gandhi with the first-time MLA and their close relatives had gone viral on social media in May last year, with captions suggesting that the Congress chief had finally found his soul mate. The news turned out to be fake with Aditi suggesting that her political opponents were cooking up all such malicious scuttlebutt. She said Rahul was her “rakhi brother” and that she was deeply anguished by this.

Aditi, a management graduate from Duke University, US, had, through her Tweets, clarified that the suggestive pictures were taken during Sonia Gandhi’s visit to Raebareli, even as she referred to the cordial relationship her family shared with the Gandhis.

After more than a year, this month the 30-something Congress MLA prepared the soil for another volley of rumours after she defied her party’s three-line whip to boycott the two-day, non-stop special legislative session convened by the Yogi Adityanath government to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and to discuss UN-mandated sustainable development goals.

Not only did Aditi, one of the only seven Congress MLAs in the UP assembly, attend the proceedings, she also waxed eloquent about the Adityanath dispensation by expressing gratitude to the chief minister for promising to amend the format of panchayat elections from indirect to direct.

In her speech, which received thunderous applause from the treasury benches, she reiterated her support for the reading down of Article 370, stating that these matters should be dealt with by rising above the party line.

Soon speculation was rife about her impending crossover to the BJP to secure her political future at a time when the Congress was battling leadership issues and flights in different states.

Aditi was recently elevated as the Congress’ all-India general secretary of the party’s women’s outfit, thus projecting her as one of the rising stars in the grand old party, which is looking to groom a new crop of leaders.

Her open defiance, nonetheless, did not go unnoticed, with the UP government deciding to upgrade her security cover to Y-plus. Earlier, she had sought higher security detail following an alleged attack on her in Raebareli over panchayat elections.

Meanwhile, the Congress has served her notice for violating the party line, with some leaders even seeking her resignation. Still her name figures among the party’s 40 star campaigners for the forthcoming UP assembly by-elections.

Aditi’s father, Akhilesh Singh, a five-time MLA and a local strongman who commanded considerable clout in Raebareli, died on August 20 this year. A week later, on August 27, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited her family in Raebareli to condole his death.

Aditi stepped into politics assisting her father and working as a social worker in his constituency before taking the electoral plunge in 2017 and winning by a margin of nearly 90,000 votes.

Akhilesh, following differences with the party leadership, had left the Congress before this and floated his party. However, in the run-up to the 2017 Assembly polls, he bequeathed his political legacy to his daughter.

Aditi is soft-spoken with a friendly demeanour and is reckoned to be accessible.

Meanwhile, the BJP, after winning the Congress bastion of Amethi, is looking to corner the party in Raebareli, represented by Sonia Gandhi in the Lok Sabha. 

Aditi, according to political analysts, could play a vital role in this if she jumps ship, the possibility of which appears good.