The Congress legislator from Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli district, Aditi Singh, on Wednesday defied a joint Opposition decision to boycott a special Assembly session on Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, and skipped party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s protest march in Lucknow, NDTV reported.

The legislator’s father, Akhilesh Singh, who died in August, was an influential local leader and close to the Gandhi family. Interim party President Sonia Gandhi represents Rae Bareli in Parliament. The Lok Sabha seat has five Assembly segments, of which two are with the Congress, two with the Bharatiya Janata Party and one with the Samajwadi Party.

According to unidentified party officials, Aditi Singh may soon cross over to the saffron party. However, she has denied it on record, NDTV reported. Talk about her changing parties have done the rounds ever since she came out in support of the Narendra Modi government’s decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional status.

At the state Assembly, Aditi Singh spoke about sanitation and drinking water problems faced by her constituents, News18 reported. “Today is Gandhi Jayanti and I have been always talking about the development of my constituency, be it drinking water or issues related to electricity,” the MLA told the news channel. “I thought this was a good opportunity to bring the issues to the forefront. Just like I had spoken my mind on Article 370, I spoke today as I felt this was the right thing to do. People have voted me to power for development. I am ready to abide by whatever decision the party takes but I did what I felt was right.”

Corrections and clarifications: This article has been updated to reflect that Akhilesh Singh passed away recently.


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