Former Raebareli MLA Akhilesh Singh dies

Raebareli (UP), Aug 20 Former MLA Akhilesh Singh, who represented Raebareli assembly constituency for five terms, died on Tuesday morning following a prolonged illness. He was 60.

Singh is survived by his wife and two daughters, including MLA Aditi Singh.

Singh breathed his last at the SGPGI Hospital in Lucknow where he was admitted on Sunday, family sources said.

Singh, who won as Congress candidate from the Raebareli 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 had returned to the Congress later.

He also got his daughter Aditi to join the party. Aditi won from her father’s seat in 2017 assembly elections.

Singh’s last rites will be performed at his ancestral home in the Lalupur village of Raebareli later in the evening.