Ratna Singh (born 29 April 1959, New Delhi) is an Indian politician from the Indian National Congress party, and represents the Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh constituency in the 15th Lok Sabha. She is often informally referred to as Rajkumari (princess) or Rani (queen), since she belongs to the derecognized Kalakankar branch of the Oudh royal family.
Contents |
She had won from Pratapgarh in 1999, but lost the 2004 elections to Akshay Pratap Singh alias Gopalji, nephew of the criminal-politician Raghuraj Pratap Singh. Ratna and Raghuraj are both related to the royal family of Oudh, but hail from different branches.[1]
Ratna Singh regained the Pratapgarh constituency in the Indian general elections, 2009, defeating her nearest Samajwadi Party rival Prof. Shivakant Ojha, by over 30,000 votes.[2] Akshay Pratap Singh came in third, and fourth was the noted criminal-politician Ateeq Ahmed who was fighting the elections from prison. Partly, her victory has been attributed to a re-allocation of the boundaries of the electoral district, whereby mafia don Raja Bhaiya's Kunda district was re-apportioned to a separate area.[3]