The Congress has ended its estranged relations with the family of Raja of Manda, former Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh, by inducting his elder son, Ajeya Singh, into the party.

His father’s party Jan Morcha will cease to exist after he joins the Congress on Saturday in Lucknow at a party function. Ajeya Singh met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday and discussed his role in the party. “I told Soniaji that I want to work for farmers, Dalits and backward sections,” Ajeya Singh told The Indian Express.

Asked why he had chosen to join the Congress despite his father’s sour relations with Congress after he parted ways with Rajiv Gandhi, Ajeya said: “It was a matter of the past. Later, my father helped the Congress to form the government in 2004. He was instrumental in persuading the UPA’s allies to extend support to the Congress,” said Singh. “Like my father, the Congress is working for Dalits and the backwards,” he added.

He claimed that he would have joined the Congress before the Lok Sabha elections but some Samajwadi Party leaders misled him and the Congress. Ajeya Singh said he did not believe in the dynasty politics and wished to follow Rahul Gandhi who had carved a place in the party by sheer hard work, and not as the son of Rajiv Gandhi.

Ajeya singh had unsuccessfully contested the LS election from Fatehpur. He had studied in England and worked as the India head of Credit Suisse First Boston, a global investment bank, before starting his real estate business.

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