A real life Robin Hood for supporters and ‘baahubali’ for others, Akhilesh Singh has won the Raebareli Sadar Assembly constituency since 1993. After a rift with the Congress Party’s top leadership, he contested as independent candidate in 2007 and won despite Priyanka Gandhi campaigning against him.
He joined the Peace Party to contest in 2012 and again won in the bastion of the Gandhi family.
But in 2017, he has passed on the baton to his young daughter Aditi Singh.
US-educated Aditi was pushed by Priyanka Gandhi to join the Congress after a meeting between the two last year.
Aditi Singh with father Akhilesh
28-year-old Aditi joined the Congress in presence of UP in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad on August 26.
She has a degree in management studies from Duke University, US.
On a door-to-door campaign train in the constituency, Aditi talked to India TV.
When asked if she knew that her father was a ‘baahubali’, Aditi nodded in affirmative but said it didn’t matter to the public as they only care about basic amenities and development.
She said that whatever the image of an individual voters only look at the work done by candidates and her father has done a lot of work in the area.
Aditi Singh with Priyanka Gandhi
Talking about Priyanka Gandhi, she acknowledged that it was Gandhi who made her join the Congress.
“I love her,” she said in a display of her affection for the leader who often visits her mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s constituency of Raebareli.
When asked about her father’s rift with Congress’ first family, Aditi said that everything was fine now. She also emphasised that her family has a relationship of three generations with the Congress.
A debutante in the politics, Aditi seems to be sure of her victory but wants to win by bigger margin than her father’s.
