Swati Singh moves court to revive divorce petition

Lucknow, March 22: Swati Singh, a former Minister of State in Uttar Pradesh, has moved an application seeking divorce from her husband Daya Shankar Singh, who has just been elected a BJP MLA from the Ballia Sadar Assembly seat. Swati Singh moved a recall application on Monday to restore her earlier plea which had been disposed off by the court due to non-appearance of both the parties.

The court has reserved its order on her application. Appearing before the court, the former Minister stated that she had earlier filed divorce petition against her husband in 2012 and the court had issued notice to her husband for filing his reply.

Meanwhile, she contested the Assembly election from Sarojini Nagar seat in 2017 and became an MLA. Thereafter, she became a Minister also and her divorce petition was dismissed in 2018 as she could not appear before the court, Swati Singh said in her plea.

Stating that she wanted to press for her divorce petition now and as such the dismissal order should be recalled and the petition be decided on merit, her lawyer sought to condone the delay in filing the recall application.

After hearing the plea, the court reserved its order to be delivered later. This time the party denied Swati Singh the ticket and instead, fielded her husband from Ballia. Swati had shot to political prominence in July 2016, when her husband Daya Shankar Singh was expelled from the party for his alleged derogatory remarks against BSP chief Mayawati. Thereafter, at a rally, BSP workers raised derogatory slogans against her and her daughter. She took a tough stand demanding FIR and arrest of BSP leaders for their comments.

This earned Swati Singh a post in the BJP's women wing and then got her a ticket to contest the elections. Recently, she made news when an audio clip went viral on the social media, in which she is heard talking about her turbulent relationship with her husband. Daya Shankar Singh, a former student leader and also vice president of the Uttar Pradesh BJP, is now tipped to become a Minister in the Yogi Adityanath government 2.0.