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Sources said it is an attempt to placate Pankaj, the name by which he is commonly known, and his father after the party denied him the ticket to contest from Varanasi Cantt or North. Following Sunday’s development, three party secretaries — Daya Shankar Singh, Santosh Singh and Ashwini Tyagi — resigned in protest. General secretary Vindhyavasini Kumar confirmed the promotion and three resignations.
The sources said Pankaj and Rajnath were unhappy over the refusal of ticket when relatives of other leaders had been fielded. For example, MP Ramakant Yadav’s son Arun Yadav was given the ticket for Jalalpur, his wife Ranjana fielded from Nizamabad and nephew Virendra Yadav from Phulpur Pawai.
Similarly, Lucknow MP Lalji Tandon’s son Ashutosh had been named candidate for Lucknow North and party national spokesman Ramnath Kovind’s son-in-law Raj Kishore Verma had been nominated for Balamau (reserved) constituency.
Along with Uma Bharti, state president Surya Pratap Shahi and vice-president Kalraj Mishra, Rajnath Singh constitutes the quartet supposed to be leading the party’s campaign. He led the party’s one of the two Jan Swabhiman Yatras which began at Mathura on October 13 and concluded in Ayodhya on November 17 last year, but has since confined himself largely to Uttarakhand. Last week, party president Nitin Gadkari had stated that Rajnath Singh was not interested in UP.
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