Day after Attending UP's Spl Gandhi Jayanti Assembly Session, Cong's Aditi Singh Gets Y-Category Security

Lucknow: A day after defying the party line to boycott a special Assembly session called by Yogi Adityanath government on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatama Gandhi, Congress MLA from Raebareli Aditi Singh has been awarded Y-plus category security cover by the state government.

Singh said, “Since there was a major attack on me a few months ago, I had demanded additional security from the government. It has heard my plea and done the needful. This should not be seen as any return gift from the government as I genuinely needed it.”

In May this year, the Congress MLA had suffered injuries on her way to Rae Bareli from Lucknow after her convoy was attacked by goons. She was headed to her Assembly segment for a floor test against the local District Panchayat Chief, Awadhesh Singh.

On Wednesday, the Congress MLA had skipped a grand peace march led by AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti in Lucknow.

The Yogi Adityanath government had called a 48-hour special session of the UP Assembly starting Tuesday to mark the Mahatma’s 150th birth anniversary and deliberate on the 'Sustainable Development Goals' set by the United Nations. Most of the Opposition parties, including the Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP), and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had decided to boycott the event.

The Raebareli (Sadar) MLA, who participated in the session, spoke about the issues of sanitation and drinking water faced by the people of her constituency.

"I have been always talking about the development of my constituency, be it drinking water or issues related to electricity," she had told News18. "As it Gandhi Jayanti, I thought it was a good opportunity to bring the issues to the forefront. Just like I had spoken my mind on Article 370, I spoke today as I felt this was the right thing to do. People have voted me to power for development, I am ready to abide by whatever decision the party takes, but I did what I felt was right."

Singh had earlier expressed her support to the BJP-led Union government's move to abrogate provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Ever since Singh went against the party line and spoke in favour of the Narendra Modi government's Kashmir move, rumours have been doing the rounds that the lawmaker might soon switch camps. No senior Congress leader was, however, available to speak on the issue.