Ameeta Singh
| Ameeta Singh | |
|---|---|
 Ameeta Singh with Sanjay Singh | |
| Born |
Ameeta Kulkarni 4 October 1962 (age 55) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Politician, former badminton player |
| Known for | Social work, former Education Minister |
Ameeta Singh, formerly Ameeta Kulkarni and Ameeta Modi, (born 4 October 1962) is a politician from the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, who was formerly a national badminton champion. She has been head of the Zilla Panchayat in Sultanpur district and has been elected twice as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Amethi Vidhan Sabha constituency in the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh. She was minister of state in the Government of Uttar Pradesh.
She is married to Sanjay Singh, an Indian National Congress (INC) politician from Amethi who is close to the Gandhi family and a descendant, by adoption, of the former royal family of Amethi.
Early life
Ameeta Singh was born as Ameeta Kulkarni[1] on 4 October 1962. She became a national champion in the sport of badminton during the 1970s.[2] In 1984, she married another national champion, Syed Modi, whom she then partnered in a successful badminton career. The couple were friendly with Sanjay Singh, who was then a politician with the INC. Their marriage ended when Syed Modi was shot dead in 1988, with both his wife and Sanjay Singh being accused of conspiracy to murder. While they were cleared of the charges, it became public knowledge that Ameeta and Sanjay were in a relationship, although Sanjay was still married at that time. The couple married in April 1995, with Sanjay claiming that he had divorced his first wife, Garima, one month earlier. A legal challenge to that divorce resulted in it being set aside in 1998 by the Supreme Court of India, although the couple still claim that they are legally wed. Aside from the three children whom he fathered with Garima, Sanjay has legally adopted Ameeta's daughter.[1] Her daughter was born two months prior to the death of Syed Modi.[3]
Singh graduated from Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University , Faizabad, in 2003 and was awarded a PhD in sociology by the same institution in 2011.[4]
Ameeta Singh has been a party to a public battle over an inheritance that has seen Sanjay and Garima making rival claims.[5] Sanjay was adopted by the king of Amethi, Rananjay Singh, as his heir prior to the abolition of all royal privileges in India and as such he inherited the former royal estates. In 1989, he had removed Garima from the palace but in 2014 she and her children took up residence at another palace in Amethi, called Bhupati Bhawan, and refused to move. Local people gathered to support her, claiming that she, rather than Ameeta, was the real queen.[6] Amidst claim and counter-claim, Anant Vikram Singh, who is Sanjay's son, has had the support of his mother in alleging that Ameeta has been undermining his future inheritance of various formerly royal properties. Sanjay denies the allegations, and also denies claims that the local people are not being looked after by the family in the manner that is customary. Garima claims that she entered the palace in support of her children, who all blame Ameeta for the troubles that have arisen since Sanjay and Ameeta began a relationship.[5]
Political career
Singh was head of the Zilla Panchayat of Sultanpur district between August 2000 and February 2002.[7] She won the Amethi Vidhan Sabha constituency as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in the 2002 Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections,[8] and again in the 2007 elections, this time as an INC candidate.[6] Her husband had also been a BJP politician at the time of the 2002 elections, having begun his career with the INC, moved to the Janata Dal party and then to the BJP. He had returned to the INC in 2003.[9] She was minister for technical education.
In 2012, Singh stood as an INC candidate in the Amethi constituency during the state legislative assembly elections of that year. She lost to Gayatri Prajapati of the Samajwadi Party.[10] She contested the Sultanpur Lok Sabha constituency as an INC candidate for a seat in the Parliament of India in 2014 but finished third, with the winner being Varun Gandhi of the BJP.[11]
In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly elections, Singh contested the Amethi constituency as an INC candidate and had Garima Singh as one of her opponents, standing for the BJP. The BJP hoped to win the seat by exploiting local sympathy for Garima, who is a relative of V. P. Singh, a former Prime Minister of India.[8] Both women named Sanjay Singh as their spouse in their election affidavits, and it was Garima who won the contest. BJP spokespeople claimed the result was indeed one based on elector's feelings about the long-running family drama.[10]
References
- 1 2 Mathur, Swati (3 August 2014). "Battle royal in Amethi". The Times of India. Retrieved 2018-02-04.
- ↑ Naqvi, L. H. (18 February 2002). "Political mood in Nehru-Gandhi land". The Tribune. Retrieved 2018-02-04.
- ↑ Weinraub, Bernard (28 August 1988). "India Murder Scandal Mixes Sex and Politics". New York Times. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
- ↑ myneta (April 2017). "AMEETA SINGH(Criminal & Asset Declaration)". myneta. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
- 1 2 Rai, Manmohan (20 September 2014). "Royal feud: 50-year-old Bhupati Bhavan Palace in Amethi locked in inheritance battle". The Times of India. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
- 1 2 Srivastava, Piyush (12 February 2017). "'Queens' & knight in Amethi battle". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
- ↑ "List of Zila Panchayat Adhyaksh, Sultanpur" (PDF). sultanpur.nic.in. Retrieved 2018-02-06.
- 1 2 Pathak, Vikas (17 February 2017). "Star wars in Amethi: Amita versus Garima". The Hindu. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
- ↑ "Sanjay Singh comes full circle". The Times of India. 21 August 2003. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
- 1 2 Agha, Eram (11 March 2017). "Riding Garima Singh's 'Sympathy Wave', BJP Storms Gandhi Bastion". News18.
- ↑ "Election Results 2014: BJP Leader Varun Gandhi Wins From Sultanpur". NDTV. 16 May 2014. Retrieved 2018-02-07.