Know Your Turncoats, Part 19: Rahul aide hopping parties, six-time MLA’s son among 5 Cong defectors

Read previous stories in this series here.

In 2019, when veteran Congressman Kripashankar Singh quit the Congress party, he asserted that he would not join the BJP. But embroiled in graft and corruption cases and under continued scrutiny by central agencies, the politician joined the BJP two years later. Now, his social media is flooded with pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and he is the BJP’s candidate from UP’s Jaunpur.     

Among the 23 turncoats vying to secure Lok Sabha seats across 58 constituencies in the sixth phase, there are five candidates, including Singh, who jumped ship from the Congress. These include close aides of the Nehru-Gandhi family to family members of veteran party leaders.

Let’s take a look.   

Ashok Tanwar: Fifth switch in 5 years  

Ashok Tanwar is the BJP candidate from the reserved constituency of Sirsa in Haryana. The 48-year-old began his political journey in 1999 as the secretary of the NSUI, the student body of the Congress party, and eventually became the youngest president of the Indian Youth Congress.

Tanwar ran for the Lok Sabha polls for the first time in 2009, securing Haryana’s Sirsa constituency with a margin of over 3.5 lakh votes. His subsequent Lok Sabha bids in 2014 and 2019 weren’t successful.

Ahead of the 2019 assembly elections, he quit the party after alleging that former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda was dominating the party’s poll committees. The resignation came months after the washout of Congress in the Haryana Lok Sabha polls and his subsequent removal from the post of the state Congress president, which was then assigned to Kumari Selja. It is Selja he is contesting the election against in Sirsa this time.

The removal in 2019 had been a shocker, considering that Tanwar was among the few who managed to retain the state president’s post after the party’s 2019 debacle. In his resignation letter, Tanwar, once considered a close aide of Rahul Gandhi, alleged that the Congress was going through an “existential crisis” and there was a “conspiracy to eliminate younger leaders groomed by Rahul Gandhi”. He also alleged that the party was “plagued with feudal attitudes”. In 2014 as well, Tanwar threatened to resign over a ticket distribution dispute. 

But between 2019 and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Tanwar switched his allegiance five times. After quitting the Congress, he campaigned for Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party in the assembly election and eventually formed his own party, Apna Bharat Morcha. In November 2021, he joined the Trinamool Congress. 

About six months later, he became a part of the Aam Aadmi Party, with his supporters viewing it as a “turning point”. But in January this year, Tanwar defected to the BJP, blaming his switch on the AAP’s “alignment” with the Congress. He was reportedly also miffed with the AAP over denial of Rajya Sabha ticket. 

Interestingly, when Tanwar’s party hopping streak began in 2019, former BJP Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar asserted that the Dalit leader would not join the BJP as it admitted only those with “clean past” and “no baggage”. Khattar himself resigned from the top post in March this year after a split between the BJP and JJP. 

Meanwhile, amid the ongoing polls, Tanwar asked: “What is wrong with changing parties when you realise it’s full of fraudsters?”

Tanwar has a master’s in history and PhD from the Jawaharlal Nehru University. He has one pending case related to fabricating false evidence. His assets marginally increased from Rs 6.43 crore in 2019 to Rs 6.44 crore in 2024. 

Manmath Kumar Routray: Former pilot, son of veteran Cong leader   

Manmath Kumar Routray is the Biju Janata Dal’s candidate from Bhubaneswar in Odisha. The 42-year-old is a former Air India pilot and son of six-time MLA and senior Congress leader Suresh Kumar Routray. 

Manmath had reportedly joined the Congress party last year. But was suspended in September over “indiscipline” as he expressed his unwillingness to contest the Lok Sabha polls on a Congress ticket. "

The political novice joined the Biju Janata Dal ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. As the junior Routray joined the BJD, his father said he was “hurt” and that he had gone “against my wish”. The 80-year-old senior Routray, a Congress MLA, eventually extended his support to his son. Meanwhile, his elder son and Congress leader Siddhartha Routray criticised Manmath and accused him of being a “family breaker”. “The prestige and goodwill that my father had earned during his sixty-year long political career has been destroyed by my younger brother. The lust for power has blinded him.”

The first-time Lok Sabha contestant has assets worth Rs 15.57 crore, as per his affidavit. He also has two pending criminal cases, involving criminal breach of trust and criminal intimidation. 

Lalitesh Pati Tripathi: Maiden TMC candidate in UP, ex-Gandhi aide 

Laliteshpati Tripathi is the Trinamool Congress candidate from Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh. The 46-year-old great grandson of former UP CM Kamlapati Tripathi began his political career with the Congress. He went on to become the vice-president of the UP Congress committee and won the 2012 assembly polls from Mirzapur, but lost in 2017. 

A close aide of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, Tripathi switched to the TMC in 2021, saying he “lost the right” to continue in the party and alleged that “loyalists were being neglected”. However, he asserted that the “Congress ideology” was the “soul of the country” and will remain within him. 

Tripathi, the first and maiden TMC candidate in UP, is a businessman by occupation. He has a management degree from the University of Bradford and there are three pending criminal cases against him, including assault against women, cheating and criminal intimidation, as per his affidavit. His assets rose by over 32 percent from Rs 7.79 crore in 2019 to Rs 10.32 crore now.

Kripashankar Singh: ED scanner, quit ‘over Cong‘s stand on Article 370’

Kripashankar Singh is the BJP candidate from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh. The 73-year-old veteran politician began his political journey after migrating to Mumbai from his native Jaunpur in search of employment in the late 1990s. 

Singh, subsequently, joined the Congress party, won the 1999 assembly polls and rose up the rungs to become a cabinet minister in the NCP-Congress coalition governments for 15 years. He also won the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Kalina, but lost the seat in 2014. He quit the Congress in 2019, saying he “did not agree with the party’s stand to oppose abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir”.  

The leader was embroiled in controversy for long. Under fire for the party’s poor performance in the BMC polls, he resigned from the Mumbai  president post in 2012, about four years after taking charge. In the same year, the Bombay High Court ordered the police to file an FIR against Singh under the Prevention of Corruption Act for criminal misconduct. 

In 2012, he was booked in multiple cases for alleged corruption, disproportionate assets worth Rs 320 crore, graft, and under the Arms Act for possessing bullets beyond permissible limits cases. A charge sheet was filed in 2015, but three years later the court granted him relief in the corruption case as the prosecution failed to produce sanction to prosecute him from the appropriate authority. 

He joined the saffron party in July 2021, while still under the ED and the CBI scanner over the alleged disproportionate assets and arms cases. The move came despite his 2019 statement that he would reveal his political stand at an “appropriate time” and would “not join the BJP”. Now, his X account is flooded with pictures of Yogi Adityanath and Narendra Modi and he accuses Rahul Gandhi of “acting like a king”.  

The politician, who has studied till class 12, has two pending criminal cases, including one related to the Arms Act. His asset grew by 135 percent over the past ten years to Rs 7.68 crore in April 2024.  

Mahabal Mishra: 3-time MLA, MP suspended for ‘anti-party’ activities 

Mahabal Mishra is the Aam Aadmi Party candidate from West Delhi. The 70-year-old began his political career with the Congress in the late 1990s as a member of the Delhi municipal corporation. The three-time MLA won the assembly polls in 1998, 2003 and 2008 from Nasirpur and also the 2019 Lok Sabha poll from West Delhi with a Congress ticket. 

He remained with the grand old party for 26 years and was suspended for “anti-party activities” ahead of the 2020 Delhi assembly polls, as Mishra campaigned for his son Vinay Mishra, who was contesting the poll on an AAP ticket.          

Reports had then said that the junior Mishra had joined the Arvind Kejriwal-led party after being denied a Congress ticket. He won the Dwarka assembly seat. A year later, in 2021, Mahabal Mishra also joined the AAP.  

The senior Mishra’s assets have reduced marginally over the past five years, from Rs 45 crore to Rs 43 crore in April 2024. He has studied till class 10 and has two pending criminal cases, including cheating and criminal intimidation.  

Research assistance by Drishti Choudhary.