Congress MP in Uttar Pradesh arrested in rape case: Who is Rakesh Rathore?

Ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls, Rathore joined the BJP and won Sitapur for the party, ending Jaiswal’s winning run. However, his narration with the enactment started souring 2 years later.

“He started making comments against the BJP organisation and Yogi Adityanath government. The enactment stopped inviting him to organisational meetings. When helium targeted the BJP authorities connected Covid-19 absorption successful May 2021, it became wide that the enactment would not repeatedly springiness him a summons successful the 2022 polls,” said a BJP person successful Sitapur. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Rathore expressed concerns astir pandemic absorption successful the authorities and said helium feared helium would beryllium charged with sedition for speaking up.

Sensing that the BJP was not consenting to tract him successful the 2022 Assembly polls, Rathored jumped vessel to the SP on with respective different salient OBC leaders. Before leaving, helium fired a parting changeable astatine the BJP saying it was moving with an “upper-caste mindset”.

But it did not enactment retired arsenic planned. The SP enactment denied him a summons from Sitapur successful the 2022 Assembly polls. The BJP fielded his namesake, Rakesh Rathore “Guru”, from Sitapur. Guru who is from the Teli caste ended up defeating SP’s Jaiswal to wrest power of the constituency. Guru was subsequently inducted into the authorities arsenic Minister of State for Urban Development, Urban Employment, and Poverty Alleviation. “Guru was fixed a summons due to the fact that the enactment wanted to groom an OBC person from the Teli assemblage here,” said a BJP leader.

He inactive stuck astir successful the SP and demanded a enactment summons successful the Sitapur Nagar Palika president elections the pursuing year. Rebuffed erstwhile more, Rathore discontinue the enactment and joined the Congress successful June 2023. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, successful which the Congress and the SP contested successful an alliance, the erstwhile fielded him from Sitapur contempt absorption from the section SP unit.

This time, Rathore managed to win, defeating the BJP’s Rajesh Verma by 89,641 votes amid a consolidation of the Scheduled Caste Pasi and Muslim votes. It was Verma who had helped Rathore get his archetypal Assembly predetermination summons from BSP successful 2007 and from the BJP successful 2017, sources said. Verma was the BSP’s Sitapur MP astatine the clip of the 2007 Assembly polls and the BJP MP successful 2017.

Weeks aft the Lok Sabha polls, Rathore near the Congress red-faced erstwhile helium wrote to enactment main Mallikarjun Kharge, accusing enactment workfellow Sanjay Dixit of casteism and humiliating him. Rathore alleged helium was “pushed” and “humiliated” by Dixit, who works successful the Congress’s “war room” successful UP.

“Rathore belongs to the Teli caste who are tiny successful fig successful the full constituency. The Pasi assemblage successful 2024 backed the SP and the Congress, particularly connected the communicative astir the Constitution. The Pasi assemblage successful Sitapur is astir 7 lakh, the highest among SCs successful the constituency. Their enactment to the confederation helped Rathore go an MP,” said a Congress leader.
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Rathore formed the “Tailik Mahasangh” aft helium became the Sitapur MLA successful 2017 to dispersed societal and governmental consciousness among the Teli community. At present, the organisation is contiguous successful astir 30 districts of Uttar Pradesh. A root said the pistillate who accused Rathore of excessively had served arsenic a functionary successful the Tailik Mahasangh. An FIR was registered against Rathore connected January 17 aft the complainant accused him of rape connected the crushed of mendacious committedness of marriage. The MP was arrested aft the Allahabad High Court connected Wednesday rejected his anticipatory bail application.

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