Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Will Brij Bhushan contest from UP’s Kaiserganj? Ex-WFI chief says he’s ’strong contender...’

BJP leader Brij Bhushan Singh, the controversial former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief accused of sexual harassment by female wrestlers, on Wednesday hinted at contesting Lok Sabha elections from the Kaiserganj constituency in Uttar Pradesh. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not announced its candidate from the Kaiserganj seat. 

“I am not a candidate right now. But the BJP has no contest in the Kaiserganj Lok Sabha seat. Last time, I won the seat by more than 2 lakh votes. This time, the workers have given a call for 5 lakh votes,” the sitting MP from Kaiserganj was quoted in an ANI  report. 

Brij Bhushan said even if the BJP announced its candidate an hour before, there would not be any contest in Kaiserganj seat.
“If God has decided this, what can I do? But I am a strong contender, so I will contest 99.9 per cent, 0.1 per cent would remain. Even if the party announced the candidate just an hour before, people would make me win," he said. 

Polling will be held in Kaiserganj in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections on May 20. Brij Bhushan secured 5,81,358 votes to win by a huge margin in the 2019 LS elections. BSP's Chandradev Ram Yadav garnered over 3.19 lakh votes while Congress candidate Vinay Kumar Pandey got 37,132 votes.

Brij Bhushan's fiefdom?

Brij Bhushan had announced his bid to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh's Kaiserganj seat in June 2023 amid an investigation into sexual harassment case. “Kaiserganj se chunav ladunga, ladunga, ladunga (Will contest election from Kaiserganj),” the BJP MP had said then. 

Several female wrestlers had protested against the BJP MP and demanded his arrest on sexual harassment charges. Following the wrestlers' protest, the Delhi Police registered a case against Bhushan under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (stalking) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC, on June 15, 2023. However, he was granted bail on July 20, 2023.

Singh, a six-term member of parliament, also runs about 50 private educational centres in and around his constituency. He was the president of the Wrestling Federation of India for nearly a decade.

(With ANI inputs)