Lok Sabha elections: My father will not be an issue in polls, says Dadua’s son

BHOPAL:

Veer Singh

, Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Kahujraho parliamentary constituency and son of Dadua, a notorious dacoit of yesteryears, has denied that the past of his father would affect his electoral prospects this time. Veer was an MLA from Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh from 2012, but lost the assembly election in 2017.

Singh began campaigning on the streets intensively two days after his name was announced. He also, held a meeting with a former BJP MLA from Chandla, RD

Prajapati

, who has now joined the SP and made a party candidate from Tikamgarh LS seat. “I was in Rajnagar this morning and proceeding to Panna from where I would go to Katni to hold meetings with party workers”, Veer told TOI over phone.

“My father died many years ago. He is now history. The life has moved on and I have never looked back. Now, I have become a separate political entity”, he said referring to Dadua, who died in 2007 in a police encounter bringing an end to an almost three-decade reign of terror. "I was already an MLA in Chitrakoot and now Akhilesh Yadav has made me a candidate of gathbandhan. I will win from Khajuraho seat”, he said. “People in Khajuraho would vote me for the work done by the gathbandhan in UP by Akhilesh and Mayawati”, he added. Although, the BJP is yet to announce a candidate from the seat, the Congress has fielded Kavita Singh as the party candidate from Khajuraho. She is the wife of Vikram Singh, alias Natiraja, an ex-royal of Chattarpur and party MLA from Khajuraho.

The SP candidate said that “political equations” have always been favourable for the party in Khajuraho because of the adjoining Uttar Pradesh districts. He also said that the core issues of poverty, migration and water scarcity faced by the people of

Bundelkhand

have neither been addressed by the BJP government nor by the Congress. “This is the reason why people would vote for me”, he said.