Hukum Singh's daughter's nomination has raised eyebrows given BJP's criticism of dynastic politics
Seated in the lawn of her family home in Kairana in Western Uttar Pradesh, three hours east of Delhi, Mriganka Singh says "by just being his daughter, why should I be denied an opportunity?"
Ms Singh is the daughter of Hukum Singh, a seven-time BJP legislator from the Kairana seat and presently its MP.
Her nomination, one of several seats given by the BJP to the children of its leaders, has raised eyebrows given the BJP's biting criticism of the dynastic Politics practised by its rivals.
Ms Singh is a political novice; she lives in Ghaziabad where she runs a school.
But she thinks she has a chance. "The party may have assessed winnability factor as well," she tells NDTV.
Her father admits that his service to the party is one of the reasons why his daughter was selected.
"We never liked family in politics, but we can't deny them the rights also. If a member of the family deserves a political standing, then we shouldn't ignore him," said Hukum Singh.
But the Singh family may face an internal battle. The ticket to Mriganka has come at the cost of her own cousin, Anil Chauhan who contested the 2014 by-elections from a BJP ticket in Kairana but had lost with a very close margin.
Mr Chauhan has now joined the rival Rashtriya Lok Dal. He will be fighting against Ms Singh.
Both father and daughter however claim family politics is not the key issue. Law and order is, specifically the hounding out of mostly Hindu families from Kairana.
With these words Mr Singh has revived a controversy he had sparked last year by releasing lists of Hindu families, whom he claimed had left Kairana because of local Muslim criminal gangs. Kairana has a 50 per cent Muslim population.
Later, after the media had poked holes in those claims, Mr Singh said it was not a communal issue merely one of law and order.
He told NDTV on Wednesday that the list may have contained errors, but in election season that doesn't seem to have deterred him from reviving it.
"It (exodus) just happened because the entire business is in the hands of the Hindus: Vaishya, Jains, Brahmins. They are the easiest targets. They are peace loving. Some criminals who happen to be Muslims were terrorising them," said Mr Singh.
But are there no Muslim-run businesses in the area, similarly targeted? "Muslims who are rich and who are running businesses were also targeted", he added as an afterthought.