Lucknow, 8 June

Indian cricketer Rinku Singh and Samajwadi Party MP Priya Saroj got engaged on Sunday in a grand ceremony graced by a host of prominent political figures.

The engagement, held at a hotel in the capital city, was attended by top SP leaders, including party president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and his wife, MP Dimple Yadav.

Other notable attendees included senior politicians Rajeev Shukla, Jaya Bachchan, Shivpal Yadav, Ramgopal Yadav, and cricketer Bhuvnesh Kumar.

Speaking to the media after the event, SP MP Awadhesh Prasad extended his warm wishes to the couple. "I have come to give my wishes to the couple. I hope that they have a happy future," he said.

Tufani Saroj, Priya Saroj's father and SP MLA from Kerakat assembly constituency, said the celebrations began on Saturday night. According to family sources, the engagement had an exclusively vegetarian menu.

Rinku Singh, a popular figure in Indian cricket, played for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the recently concluded 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Priya Saroj is a first-time Member of Parliament, having won the Machhlishahr seat on a Samajwadi Party ticket in the 2024 general elections.

A native of Karkhiaon village in Varanasi, Priya Saroj has been actively involved with the SP for several years. She first gained public attention during her father's campaign for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

The parliamentarian holds an arts degree from Delhi University and a law degree from Amity University in Noida.

Rinku Singh, born on October 12, 1997, in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh, became an overnight sensation in IPL 2023 when he hit five sixes in a single over, securing a victory for the KKR -- a team he has been a part of since 2018. He earned a spot in the Indian cricket team the same year.

He has played two One Day Internationals (ODIs) and 33 Twenty20 Internationals. In first-class cricket, he has amassed 3,336 runs in 50 matches, including seven centuries.