RK Singh Patel: Vying For Power; Eyeing At Banda Seat (image:facebook.com/RKsinghpatel4/)
RK Singh Patel has associated with various parties during the course of his political career. From the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP), and now a sitting BJP MP, his political trajectory is diverse. In the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, reposing faith in RK Singh Patel, the BJP is fielding him again from Uttar Pradesh”s Banda parliamentary constituency.
RK Singh Patel began his political debut with the SP. In the 2009 elections, Patel defeated the BSP candidate by a margin of 34,593 votes. When the party denied him a ticket in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he shifted his allegiance to the BSP. Though contested in Banda under the BSP ticket, the BJP candidate Bhairon Prasad Mishra won the election by defeating Patel by a margin of 1,15,788 votes.
In 2017, ahead of the Vidhan Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, RK Singh Patel joined the BJP. In the 2019 elections, he contested from Banda as a BJP candidate and won the election by defeating SP candidate Shyama Charan Gupta by a margin of 58,938 votes.
In 2022, a court in Uttar Pradesh convicted and sentenced RK Singh Patel for a one-year jail term in relation to a case registered against him in 2009 for halting a train and pelting stones on police during a protest under the BSP regime, The New Indian Express reports. Since the sentence is one year, it would not affect Patel”s Lok Sabha membership.
At once, Banda Lok Sabha constituency has been dominated by Congress and switched allegiance post-the 1984 elections due to the Ram Mandir movement, the Daily Guardian observes. The BJP secured its first win in 1991. From 1999 to 2019, the constituency has been represented by the BSP once, the SP twice, and the BJP twice. Since in the previous two elections, the constituency was favouring the BJP party, it hopes they will continue their strong hold this time also.
Caste politics, especially the influence of Brahmin and Kurmi voters, plays a significant role in the electoral fate of the Banda constituency. Apart from understanding the caste dynamics of the region, since Banda constituency is part of Bandelkhand, political parties need to understand developmental and infrastructural issues as well.
