The blue-eyed Congress leader in crosshairs across two states, 1,700 km apart: Bhanwar Jitendra Singh

Days after being denied a ticket for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, a former Congress MP in Rajasthan’s Alwar and sitting parliamentarian in Assam’s Barpeta on March 15 almost simultaneously announced their exit from the party.

What linked them was that both of them said that they were associated with the party for “25 years.” What also linked them, over 1,700 km apart, is that they blamed the same person for their move: AICC general secretary Bhanwar Jitendra Singh.

Over the past few days, Singh has been in the spotlight and at the receiving end of criticism and some praise. As AICC General Secretary, he is in charge of Assam and Madhya Pradesh and is also a Congress Working Committee member.

In Alwar, two-time MP Karan Singh Yadav squarely blamed Jitendra Singh for his exit from the party. “There was a strong demand that I contest (the Lok Sabha polls) … The Congress assumed power after fighting kings. Wahi party ab rajaon ke isharon pe chal rahi hai (The same party is dancing on the tunes of kings). Hence, I was not given a ticket,” he said, in a reference to Singh’s relation to the erstwhile royal families of Alwar and Bundi.

Singh’s father Pratap Singh was a scion of the erstwhile royal family of Alwar while his mother, Mahendra Kumari, was the daughter of the last king of Bundi, Maharaj Bahadur Singh. Kumari was elected as an MP from Alwar in 1991 on a BJP ticket.

Yadav accused Singh of “destroying the Congress due to his cordial relations with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra”. “A kid has been propped up and they have completely destroyed a seat for the party,” he said, in reference to first-time Mundawar MLA Lalit Yadav being chosen as the party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Alwar.

Far away in Assam, Barpeta MP