Former Bharatiya Janata Party Uday Singh alias Pappu Singh who quit the saffron party on January 18 this year, is all set to join the Congress party today.
The state president of Bihar Congress Madan Mohan Jha will nominate Singh to the Congress. The Congress central leadership has given its approval over his joining at the Sadaqat Ashram on March 20. Singh is being considered as a possible Congress candidate from Purnia.
Younger brother of the 15th Finance Commission chairman N K Singh alias Nandu Babu, Uday Singh represented Purnia Lok Sabha seat twice in 2004 and 2009 as BJP nominee. He had lost his Purnia seat in 2014 to JD(U)’s Santosh Kushwaha by a margin of more than 1.16 lakh votes notwithstanding the strong wave in favour of Narendra Modi.
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In the recent seat-sharing among allies of NDA, Purnia has been allotted to JD(U) which has decided to retain Kushwaha as its candidate.
Earlier, Uday Singh’s mother Madhuri Singh had represented Purnia seat twice in 1980 and 1984 as Congress candidate. Uday’s sister Shyama Singh won Aurangabad (Bihar) Lok Sabha seat in 1999 as Congress nominee.
Five constituencies—Purnia, Katihar, Kishanganj, Banka and Bhagalpur—will go to the polls in the second phase. The process of filing nominations for the second phase will conclude on March 26. while the scrutiny for the same will be done on March 27, the last day of withdrawing nominations is March 29.
