BJP Fields Union Minister SP Singh Baghel from Karhal to Corner SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav

In what could be termed as a surprise and interesting move by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party has fielded Union Minister of State SP Singh Baghel from Karhal assembly seat of Mainpuri to corner Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Baghel is currently a BJP MP from Agra and has been once close to SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The Union MoS filed his nomination papers directly at the Karhal collectorate on Monday after Akhilesh Yadav filed his nomination for his first-ever assembly election. The name of Baghel was not even announced by the BJP officially to everyone’s surprise, but Baghel reached the collectorate and filed his nomination directly.

A former sub-inspector in the Uttar Pradesh police, Prof SP Singh Baghel is a big name in the political arena of Uttar Pradesh. Baghel got a chance to protect the then Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav while in the police and just from here his fortunes started changing. He was the Chief Minister’s personal security officer (PSO) and after that, he went on to become the Samajwadi Lok Sabha MP from Jalesar in 1998, 1999 and 2004. In 2014, Baghel went to the Rajya Sabha from Bahujan Samaj Party. In 2017, he won the assembly elections from Tundla on a BJP ticket and was made a cabinet minister in the State government. Later, BJP gave him a ticket from Agra and won.

Baghel hails from Bhatpura in the Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh. His father Rambharose Singh was posted in the Madhya Pradesh police department. After Mulayam Singh Yadav became the Chief Minister in 1989, Baghel joined Mulayam’s security, but based on his bravery, hard work and honesty, he also won the heart of Mulayam. Mulayam fielded him for the first time in 1998 as a candidate of the Samajwadi Party from the Jalesar seat and he won. After that, he was elected MP twice.

Baghel was sent to Rajya Sabha by BSP and was also given the responsibility of national general secretary. In 2014, Baghel lost to the son of SP National General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav from the Firozabad Lok Sabha seat. He resigned from the Rajya Sabha and joined the BJP. After joining the BJP, he was made the national president of the BJP Backward Front.

Baghel has also played a role of a star campaigner for the BJP in the 2017 assembly elections held in Bihar. Baghel is now considered close to Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The party fielded Baghel in 2019 by cutting the ticket of Ram Shankar Katheria, a powerful MP and national president of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. Baghel won the election with a huge margin from Agra.

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