Lucknow: After Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh dropped out from the polls in West Bengal, BJP MP Upendra Singh Rawat has now opted out of the Lok Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh in the wake of controversial videos surfacing on the social media.
Rawat, the sitting MP from Barabanki, was initially in the first list of BJP candidates for the upcoming general election.
But he was soon on the backfoot after the obscene videos purportedly featuring him appeared online on 3 March. ThePrint could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos.
Within hours of the purported videos going viral, Rawat lodged an FIR in the Kotwali police station of Barabanki on Sunday night.
In the FIR, a copy of which is with ThePrint, Rawat’s personal secretary Dinesh Chandra Rawat has said that “an objectionable video is being publicized against the MP which is an edited video through which his image can be tarnished.”
The FIR was lodged against an unknown person under Sections 419 (cheating), 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory) of IPC and Sections 66 D, 67 and 43 of the IT Act.
Later, Rawat issued a video statement Monday claiming that “the videos going viral were generated by Deepfake” and that “they were edited” as he alleged a political conspiracy behind the act
— Upendra Singh Rawat (@upendrasinghMP) March 4, 2024
He also tweeted saying that he won’t fight any election in his public life till proven innocent.
मेरा एक एडिटेड वीडियो वायरल किया जा रहा है जो DeepFake AI तकनीक द्वारा जेनरेटेड है, जिसकी FIR मैंने दर्ज करा दी है,इसके संदर्भ में मैंने मा॰ राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष जी से निवेदन किया है कि इसकी जाँच करवायी जाये। जबतक मैं निर्दोष साबित नहीं होता सार्वजनिक जीवन में कोई चुनाव नहीं लड़ूँगा
— Upendra Singh Rawat (@upendrasinghMP) March 4, 2024
ThePrint looks at the rise and previous controversies of the first-time MP from Uttar Pradesh.
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SC leader who started as MLA
An MA degree holder from J.N. PG College Barabanki (2001) and an LLB from DAV university, Lucknow (1999), Rawat comes from the scheduled caste and became an MLA from Zaidpur in Barabanki in 2017.
In the process, he had defeated senior Congress leader P.L. Punia’s son Tanuj Punia and BSP’s Meera Gautam who came second and third, respectively.
Two years on, Rawat replaced Priyanka Singh Rawat as the BJP’s candidate in Barabanki, a reserved seat for members of SCs, in 2019. While Priyanka Rawat was instrumental in ensuring MLA’s ticket for him from Zaidpur assembly constituency in 2019, the BJP high command denied her a ticket from Barabanki Lok Sabha seat and instead fielded Upendra Rawat. Priyanka Rawat had broken down into tears soon after she was denied a ticket in March 2019 and her supporters had protested at the Lucknow-Ayodhya road.
Rawat, however, went on to defeat Ram Sagar Rawat, his nearest rival from the Samajwadi Party, by a margin of over 1,10,000 votes.
In his 2019 poll affidavit, he declared that he owned two plots in Badel village of Barabanki and other immoveable and moveable assets amounting Rs 1,12 crore and Rs 1.48 lakh, respectively.
During the campaigning for the 2017 assembly election, an FIR was lodged against him in Barabanki’s Asandra police station under 171 (h) (illegal payments in connection with an election) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) of the IPC and Section 127 (a) (violation of restrictions on the printing of pamphlets, posters, etc) of the Representation of the People Act for allegedly luring voters by distributing lunch packets.
In October 2022, Rawat was embroiled in a controversy after a purported audio of a conversation between him and an assistant engineer went viral in which the former claims that he can scold and beat up people while allegedly hurling abuses at the latter.
Later, Rawat had said that he was upset with the assistant engineer for failing to prepare an estimate for the repair of a damaged bridge in Kaanhupur village of Trivediganj block of Barabanki despite writing five-six times to the department.
In the audio, Rawat was purportedly also heard saying that “he would lock up the official’s office and sit outside it” because due to his act, “an MLA was denied a ticket”.
He can also be heard saying that he got a 20.5 km road approved under the PM Gramin Sadak Yojana but the official was carrying out “a fraud.”
Sanjay Gupta, the assistant engineer in question, had submitted an application seeking leave to his department and wrote a letter to the police for helping him with security.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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