Lucknow, (Samajweekly) Uttar Pradesh Minister for transport, Daya Shankar Singh, has obtained divorce from his wife Swati Singh, also a former Minister, ending their 22-year-old relationship.
The family court allowed divorce by mutual consent.
Swati Singh, a minister of state in the Yogi Adityanath government between 2017 and 2022, had moved an application seeking divorce from her husband Daya Shankar Singh, who was elected a BJP MLA from the Ballia Sadar Assembly seat in March 2022.
She moved a recall application last year to restore her earlier plea which had been disposed of by the court due to nonappearance of both the parties. The court had reserved its order on her application.
She had told the court that she had earlier filed divorce petition before the court 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.
Swati had won from Lucknow’s Sarojini Nagar seat in 2017 but in 2022, the party denied her the ticket and instead fielded her husband from Ballia.
Swati Singh made headlines 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 an FIR and arrest of BSP leaders for their comments.
