UP Assembly Elections: Serial Hate Offender Raghvendra Pratap Singh Gets the Boot in Domariyaganj!

Saiyada Khatoon of Samajwadi Party (SP) has defeated the incumbent Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Domariyaganj Raghavendra Pratap Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Khatoon's victory is a resounding slap in the face of divisive forces, given how Singh had claimed that if he were elected again, Muslims will wear tilaks.

Saiyada Khatoon has won from the Domariyaganj assembly seat  by a margin of  771 votes, polling  85,098 votes against Singh’s 84,327 votes. She had lost to Singh in 2017 by a mere 171 votes and has come back stronger. 

Singh who is said to be devoted to Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister Adityanath, had had an anti-Msulim stance during his election campaign. He had made shocking statements such as, “If you make me MLA again, they (Muslims) will stop wearing skullcaps and start applying tilaks.” Singh also claimed that after he got elected in the last election, “250 acres of land belonging to Muslims got confiscated, their shops destroyed.” He asked the crowds, “Will there be Jai Shri Ram or Walekum Salam in Domariyaganj? Durga ji is here with us, promising once in front of her." and, “Any Hindu who doesn't vote for me has Miyan blood!" 

In the run up to elections, the relentless hate mongering of BJP MLA Raghvendra Pratap Singh had been noted by team CJP and another complaint against him was filed before the State Election Commission (SEC) of Uttar Pradesh for delivering another speech during his election campaign. The earlier instance of hate speech was also brought to the attention of the SEC via a complaint dated February 15. Within a week of this complaint, CJP came across another video of Singh, where he was again seen addressing a crowd of voters during one of his campaigns and can be heard saying, “Any Hindu who doesn't vote for me has Miyan (slang for Muslims) blood in his veins. He's a traitor. He is a b***ard son of Jaichand. He's a h****khor son of his father...I am giving warning this time...traitors of Hindu religion will be destroyed.” He added, “Even after this warning of mine, if they don’t understand, I will show you what Raghvendra Singh can do. If you humiliate me I will bear it but if you betray the Hindu society, I will destroy you!”    

The complaint urges that these “serial hate offences and hate crimes are evaluated and acted upon for what they are, not individual misdemeanours but concerted attempts to not only vitiate the social and political atmosphere but –in brazen violation of Indian criminal law and election law –criminally intimidate voters and also indulge in a corrupt electoral practice.”