Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Kinnar Kalyan Board (transgender welfare board) vice-president Sonam Chishti, who holds a Minister of State (MoS) rank in the Yogi Adityanath government, resigned from her post Friday, alleging corruption in her department and accusing the bureaucracy of “not listening” to BJP workers.
In her resignation letter to Governor Anandiben Patel, Chishti, popularly known as Sonam Kinnar, stated that she was taking responsibility for the BJP’s losses in Lok Sabha polls and quitting as her conscience had been hurt.
“I take responsibility for the loss and performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party in different districts/Lok Sabha seats and I have been unsuccessful in strengthening the party as an MoS. Hence, I am resigning due to my conscience being hurt. After this, I will continue to work to strengthen the organisation of the BJP and will fulfil any responsibility that the UP BJP gives me,” Chishti wrote. ThePrint has seen the letter.
Speaking to ThePrint, Chishti raised allegations of graft in her department. She further claimed that government officials don’t listen to her whenever she raises any concerns brought by party workers.
“I have tendered my resignation because corruption has happened in my department at a big level. When the budget was granted to my department, certain actions took place without my consent. There is no staff in my board,” she said.
According to Chishti, she was handed over a bill for expenses incurred in the maintenance of the government accommodation she had been granted under the previous Akhilesh Yadav regime.
“I was allotted a house under the Akhilesh Yadav regime but was handed over a huge bill for the expenses incurred on its maintenance. When I have been allotted a house by the government, isn’t it the government which should incur expenses on its maintenance? The government’s estate department is claiming that the social welfare department will pay for the expenses while the social welfare department is saying that Yogiji (Chief Minister’s Office of Yogi Adityanath) will pay,” she told ThePrint.
The state government is yet to accept Chishti’s resignation.
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Chishti’s political journey
Chishti was appointed as vice-president of UP Kinnar Kalyan Board in November 2021 after the body was formed that year by the Adityanath government on the directions of the Supreme Court. The CM is its chairperson.
Earlier a member of Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, she had joined the BJP in August 2021.
After getting the vice-president’s post, Chishti had said she had cursed Akhilesh that he would never return to power in UP, and that the BJP would form the government again (in the 2022 state elections) with a majority.
She had also said that given a chance by the BJP, she would like to contest the assembly polls against Yadav to ensure his defeat.
In 2014, Chishti had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls from Amethi against senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is now Leader of the Opposition in Parliament.
She has been quoted in the media as repeating the words of deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya — that the “party is bigger than the government”. Maurya has been in the news recently for his alleged rift with the UP CM.
Chishti has previously too been vocal about UP civil servants not listening to BJP workers.
Chishti also holds the post of peethadheeshwar of the Kinnar ashram in Sultanpur and commands respect in the region, emerging as the face of the 5 lakh-strong transgender community in UP.
In 2018, she had become the first person from the transgender community of the state to be appointed as a paralegal volunteer by the Sultanpur district judge and legal services authority.
Two years ago, Chishti had remarked that when the old pension and other facilities had been done away with for state government employees, the pension for MPs and MLAs should also be stopped and that “politics was the best business in current times”.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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