Ensuring “son-rise” no cakewalk for Brij Bhushan
Litmus test: INDIA bloc candidate Bhagat Ram Mishra poses a formidable challenge even as Brij Bhushan fighting to pass on political legacy to Karan Bhushan in Kaiserganj
Perhaps the only Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh on which declaring its candidate was tough for the Bharatiya Janata Party this time was Kaiserganj.
Reason: It was the seat where party long-time sitting MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who holds sway in the region, was facing sexual harassment charges. After much suspense and delay, the party announced his son’s candidature from the seat to strike a balance.
However, for six-time MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, five times from BJP and once on a Samajwadi Party ticket, Kaiserganj seat is no cakewalk this Lok Sabha polls. Denied ticket, Singh, once considered invincible, is fighting hard to not only salvage his political legacy but also to pass it on to his son Karan Bhushan Singh who has replaced his father as the BJP candidate.
Despite denial of ticket, the only talking point among voters here is Brij Bhushan and not his son. On the electoral front, battle lines are drawn in Kaiserganj, which goes to polls in the fifth phase on May 20, and the contest is between the BJP and INDIA bloc candidate Bhagat Ram Mishra even as BSP candidate Narendra Pandey is not in news here.
INDIA bloc candidate Bhagat Ram Mishra is posing a formidable challenge to Brij Bhushan’s legacy. On the streets of Kaiserganj, one can sense what electorates have in their mind this time. But no one is vocal when it comes to expressing choice between Brij Bhushan and Bhagat Ram Mishra.
However, as you enter Kaiserganj tehsil on hot afternoon, political temperature seems to be higher than the rising mercury. Lawyers sitting under tin-roof chambers on wooden chairs are more vocal about what is going on in this Lok Sabha constituency.
Here clients of lawyers are also vocal in expressing their views. Brijesh Mishra, 65, president, Bar Association, Kaiserganj, is seated along with fellow lawyers Indra Sen Singh and Narayan Sharma. When asked about the political scenario in Kaiserganj, Mishra says: “This time it will not be easy for Brij Bhushan to retain the seat. Both Brahmins and Thakurs are mulling over all options.”
The Kaiserganj parliamentary seat has a sizable number of around five lakh Brahmin voters. “Traditional BJP voter is shifting towards INDIA bloc not only in Kaiserganj but in the entire Devipatan division,” claims Indra Sen Singh,62.
Singh’s anger is not directed towards top BJP leadship but towards candidates. Narayan Sharma points out that local issues have not been addressed. Just a few metres away from the tehsil, Vijay Singh is sitting in the courtyard of his house. Atop the house, the saffron flag which came into circulation during Pran Pratishtha ceremony of Ram Lalla is flying high.
“Any loss in Kaiserganj will be compensated by four other assembly segments of this Lok Sabha seat. We are confident that the BJP will continue its winning streak here,” opines Vijay Singh, former chairman of gram panchayat. On Saturday (May 11) afternoon, everyone is eagerly waiting for Karan Bhushan Singh at Haibatpur village in Fakarpur block.
Haibatpur is also a gram panchayat under which 14 other villages fall. A Brahmin-dominated gram panchayat, it has around 2200 voters. Under a banyan tree next to the village temple, around 100 chairs are laid and tables set up to welcome Karan Bhushan Singh.
Gram pradhan Anand Prakash Shukla is overseeing all arrangements as two huge speakers blur out songs based on Lord Ram. A heated discussion breaks out among village elders as they wait for the BJP candidate. “No development work has been carried out in our village by ‘Sansad ji’ during his long tenure. We only need a proper road to commute from one end of the village to another,” says Radhey Raman Awasthi. “During monsoon, the commuting becomes an ordeal here,” he adds.
“All our pleas have gone in vain. We have a lot of complaints,” he says. Standing next to Awasthi, Vinay Shukla agrees with me. “I cannot agree more. All these years our gram panchayat has been neglected,” claims Shukla. “But we all are bound by our loyalty to the BJP, PM Modi and CM Yogi. Despite all grievances, we will vote for lotus (BJP poll symbol),” he adds.
Gram pradhan Anand Prakash Shukla nods in agreement with them as he says, “There are complaints but we will vote for lotus, something we have been doing since ages.” Another group starts calculating about Brahmin votes in Kaiserganj and what if some percentage shifts to the INDIA bloc candidate.
Discussion stops as Karan Bhushan’s cavalcade arrives. With slogans of ‘Jai Sri Ram’ villagers welcome the BJP candidate. Like a seasoned politician, Karan Bhushan, 33, seeks blessings of gram pradhan Anand Prakash Shukla by touching his feet. Before taking over the stage, he pays obeisance to village deity goddess Durga at the temple. As names are announced, people come near the stage one by one to garland Karan Bhushan.
He never forgets to touch the feet of elders. The event concludes in around half-an-hour. After he leaves, once again conversation breaks out and villagers give vent to their anger and indifferent attitude towards their gram panchayat all these years.
Krishna Kumar Tripathi, former mandal incharge, Fakarpur block, brushes aside all anger against the sitting MP. He is confident of overwhelming support for the BJP candidate. Brij Bhushan is mostly managing his son’s campaign from behind the scene from Vishnoharpur village where he resides.
INDIA bloc candidate Bhagat Ram Mishra of the Samajwadi Party is a lawyer and spends considerable time with fellow advocates at the Bahraich district court. Mishra, however, does not take part in court proceedings. He has a considerable support from lawyers in the region. Right from Kaiserganj tehsil to all other tehsils in the constituency, Mishra is getting an overwhelming support from lawyers.
Along with the Muslim and Yadav combination, if Mishra gets some support from Brahmin and Thakur constituents of Kaiserganj, things will become tough for the debutant Karan Bhushan. Bhagat Ram is the half-cousin of Daddan Mishra, the BJP candidate from Shravasti Lok Sabha seat in 2019 who had lost the last general election by a narrow margin of around 5,320 votes.
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s long political career began in 1991 when he won the Lok Sabha election for the first time from Gonda as a BJP candidate. The BJP fielded Singh’s wife Ketki Singh from Gonda in 1996 Lok Sabha election after he was sent to jail for allegedly harbouring associates of India’s number one enemy and mafia don Dawood Ibrahim.
However, Singh was later absolved of all charges by the court. He was re-elected from Gonda in 1999 and in 2004 from Balrampur as BJP candidate. In July 2008, Singh joined the SP after the BJP expelled him for cross-voting in Parliament during a no-confidence motion brought by the opposition against the then UPA government against India-US nuclear deal. In 2009, Singh was elected MP from Kaiserganj as an SP candidate.
But months before the 16th general election, Singh returned to the BJP. He won the 2014 and the 2019 LS elections from Kaiserganj as BJP candidate. Singh’s wife Ketki Singh is currently the chairperson of Gonda Zila Panchayat while his elder other son Prateek Bhushan Singh is the BJP MLA from Gonda (Sadar) assembly constituency. The Delhi court on May 10 framed charges against Brij Bhushan in sexual harassment case involving wrestlers.
Karan Bhushan is the president of the Uttar Pradesh Wrestling Association, a post to which he was elected in February. His father headed the Wrestling Federation of India for over a decade and now faces charges of sexually harassing women wrestlers.
Karan Bhushan had also been a national level double trap shooter. Born on December 13, 1990, he is a law graduate from Dr RML University, Faizabad. He has also done BBA from this university. In addition, Karan Bhushan has done a diploma in business management from Australia. He is also chairman of a Cooperative Bank at Nawabganj in Gonda district.
Father of a son and a daughter, Karan has been proactive in managing day-to-day affairs in his father’s constituency. Brij Bhushan has spent the last two years embroiled in serious charges of sexual harassment levelled by some of India’s top wrestlers.
Though he lost his sheen as a sports administrator, the six-time MP still holds considerable influence in the constituency where he won by 2,60,000 votes in 2019. Brij Bhushan also enjoys a good rapport with the Samajwadi Party whose chief Akhilesh Yadav had refrained from commenting on Singh even as the row dominated national headlines.
The Kaiserganj Lok Sabha seat comprises five assembly segments— Katra Nazar, Colonelganj, Kaiserganj, Tarabganj and Payagpur. Two of them, Kaiserganj and Payagpur, are part of Bahraich district and the remaining three are part of adjoining Gonda district. The Kaiserganj Lok Sabha seat shares its name with the Kaiserganj assembly seat.
