Former Congress leader and five-time MLA from Rae Bareli Sadar Assembly constituency, Akhilesh Singh passed away on Tuesday morning after a prolonged illness. He was 60. Singh is survived by wife and two daughters, including MLA Aditi Singh. He was called the Robinhood of Rae Bareli.
Singh, who was battling cancer for the past few years, breathed his last at Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) in Lucknow early Tuesday morning. His daughter Aditi Singh now represents Congress from the Sadar seat.
Akhilesh Singh was a popular leader in Rae Bareli and won his seat even as an independent after he left Congress. Though he was known for his criminal antecedentsm with several FIRs registered against him, he was like the proverbial ‘Robinhood’ in his constituency. Singh, who won as Congress candidate from Rae Bareli Sadar constituency three times consecutively, had been expelled from the party in 2003 after which he won the seat as an independent in 2007 and as a Peace Party candidate in 2016.
He, however, mended fences with the Congress in 2016 and returned to the party fold later. He also got his daughter Aditi to join the party. Aditi won from her father’s seat in 2017 Assembly elections.
Earlier in 2015, Singh took ill seriously and had been under treatment at a Singapore hospital. His body was taken to his village Lalupur in Rae Bareli where the cremation was done later in the day.
