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The feud in the royal palace of Amethi took a new turn on Sunday with Congress Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh’s son Anant Vikram Singh formally joining the Bharatiya Janata Party in an obvious bid to challenge his father.
And Anant has no qualms about contesting against anybody in what is better known as the political bastion of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi who defeated the BJP’s high profile nominee Smriti Irani in the May 2014 Lok Sabha election , albeit with a much slimmer margin than ever before.Since the next
Lok Sabha elections are far away, Anant is seen as a potential BJP nominee for the 2017 state assembly poll in which he may throw the gauntlet at his father’s second wife Ameeta Modi , whom he describes as the ‘usurper’ of his real mother, Garima’s place.
“If I am fortunate enough to be considered for a ticket, I would be ready to take on anybody for the sake of my ancestral home, that has never received its due and has remained neglected under successive regimes,” Anant told media persons shortly after being inducted in the BJP at the party’s state headquarters in Lucknow.
Asked if his intent was to turn his family feud into a political war, he sought to clarify, “This is a war of ideology and I do not intend to mix my personal differences with my political role.”
Sanjay Singh is locked in a dispute with his first wife Garima and her children who were not only unhappy with his second marriage with Ameeta but had also staked claim to their share in the multi-crore empire. However, far from achieving anything, Garima and her 36- year old son were holed up in a small corner of the gigantic palace with access to just about two rooms for the past several months.
It may be recalled that Sanjay and Ameeta had entered a wedlock a few years after both were charged for the murder of Ameeta’s first husband Syed Modi, then eight-time national badminton champion, who was murdered in Lucknow in 1988.
Though Sanjay and Ameeta managed to wriggle out of the case after seeking intervention of the apex court, the divorce deed obtained by Sanjay to legitimise his judicial separation with Garima was later found to be forged.
Anant is also seeking re-opening of investigation in the Syed Modi murder case. “I have been demanding fresh investigation in that case, because I feel that the culprits have got away and the poor badminton champion’s family never got justice,” he pointed out.