Waning clout, convictions keep many U.P. strongmen out of poll race

LUCKNOW: While announcing schedule for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in March, chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar had talked about the poll panel’s strategies to deal with 4M (muscle, money, misinformation and model code violations) to ensure free and fair election. At least of one M (muscle) has little trace this time in Uttar Pradesh where Bahubali (strongman) politicians have dominated the poll arena for long in the past.

As many as nine strongman politicians, including Dharam Pal Yadav alias DP Yadav, Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit, Ashok Singh Chandel, Rizwan Zaheer, Ram Kant Yadav, Uma Kant Yadav, Dhananjay Singh, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and Vijay Mishra are not in the electoral arena this time in the state.

Political experts say some have lost their political clout while some others have been convicted. They also point out that many political parties have avoided giving tickets to people with criminal antecedents this time. The first in the list is four-time MLA, one-term MP each from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Dharam Pal Yadav alias DP Yadav (75).

Yadav, a milkman-turned-hooch king-turned-politician, lost the 2012 assembly election from Sahaswan seat and 2014 Lok Sabha elections from two parliamentary seats of Sambhal and Ghazipur. His wife Umlesh Yadav fought for the same seat in the 2017 election but lost.

Moreover, he was also convicted in SP MLA Mahendra Singh Bhati’s murder by the CBI court in 2015 but was acquitted by Dehradun high court in 2021.

He remained an MLA from Bulandshahr assembly three times between 1989 and 1993 on tickets of Janata Dal, Janata Party (S) and Samajwadi Party. In 2007, he again became a legislator from Sahaswan assembly of Budaun on the ticket of his own Rashtriya Parivartan Dal. Before it, he was elected a Lok Sabha MP from Sambhal in 1996 and also served as BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP from 1998 to 2004.

Another Bahubali from west UP is Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit, 49. He was elected MLA for two terms from Debai assembly seat of Bulandshahr on BSP and SP tickets in 2012 and 2017 respectively. He then unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha polls in 2019 from Fatehpur Sikri. He was sentenced to 14- month imprisonment in October 2023 for issuing a threat.

The third strongman politician is four-term MLA and former BSP MP Ashok Singh Chandel, 70, who is currently cooling his heels in Agra central jail.

He was sentenced to life term by the Allahabad high court in April 2019 for the murder of five people, including an eight-year-old child, in November 2006.

He was last elected an MLA on a BJP ticket from Hamirpur in 2017 but lost his membership after being sentenced to a life term. Before it, he became MP from Hamirpur parliamentary constituency in 1999 while remaining in jail.

Another on the list is Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh (67), the sitting BJP MP from Kaiserganj and former president of the Wrestling Federation of India. He is a six-time MPs, five times from the BJP and once from the SP. His son Karan Bhushan Singh, who is also a vice president at WFI, replaced him as the BJP candidate from Kaiserganj, following a controversy, over allegations of sexual harassment by India’s top female wrestlers.

His political career has been marred by many controversies. He was also booked under anti-terrorism laws for allegedly harbouring members of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, although he was later acquitted due to lack of evidence. Currently, he faces allegations of sexual harassment by India’s top female wrestlers.

Similar is the story of three-time MLA and two-time MP Rizwan Zaheer, 59, who remained an MLA from Tulsipur assembly as an independent candidate in 1989. In 1993 and 1996, he again won the seat as SP and BSP candidates respectively.

Thereafter, he became a Lok Sabha MP from Balarampur on an SP ticket in 1998 and 1999. He last unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha poll from Shravasti on a Peace Party ticket in 2014. He has been in jail since 2022 after being accused of hatching a conspiracy for the murder of a local politician.

Others on the list are two brothers Ramakant Yadav, 66, and Umakant Yadav, 70. Ramakant was a four-term MLA between 1985 and 1995 and a four-term MP from Azamgarh in 1996, 1999, 2004 and 2009. He last contested the Lok Sabha poll unsuccessfully in 2019 from Bhadohi.

His elder brother Umakant Yadav is a three-time MLA from Khutahan (now Shahganj) assembly in 1991, 1993 and 1996 as BSP and SP candidate. He was an MP from Jaunpur’s Machhlishahr Lok Sabha seat on a BSP ticket in 2004 defeating BJP veteran Keshari Nath Tripathi. He last filed his nomination from Shahganj assembly seat in 20126 but his papers were rejected.

Another prominent name in the list is of two-term MLA and former MP Dhananjay Singh who was sentenced to seven-year jail by the Jaunpur MP/MLA court in March this year for kidnapping and extortion of Namami Gange project manager in 2020.

After escaping a police encounter in 1998, he became a two-term MLA as an independent candidate from Jaunpur’s Rari assembly in 2002 and 2007. Thereafter, he became an MP from Jaunpur on a BSP ticket in 2009. Singh last contested the assembly polls from Malhani seat of Jaunpur in 2022 but lost.

Dhananjay Singh managed to arrange Jaunpur Lok Sabha ticket from Bahujan Samaj Party for his wife Srikala Reddy Singh, but the BSP changed its candidate from Jaunpur on the last day of nomination on May 6 and fielded its sitting MP from Jaunpur Shyam Singh Yadav. The BSP also expelled Srikala for anti-party activities and indiscipline.

Similarly, Vijay Mishra is a four-time MLA from Gyanpur assembly seat of Bhadohi district. He won in 2002, 2007 and 2012 as an SP candidate and in 2017 as NISHAD (Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal) party candidate.

He last contested an assembly poll on the ticket of Pragatisheel Manav Samaj Party in 2022 but ended third. He has been in jail for the past two years. He was also sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by Bhadohi MP/MLA court in November 2023 in the case of raping a folk singer.

Three UP strongmen no more

Three Mafiosi, including former cabinet minister and six-time MLA Hari Shankar Tiwari, have died in the past over a year. Tiwari was the first among those who won assembly polls while being lodged in jail in 1985. He died due to age-related ailments in May last year at the age of 89.

Before Tiwari, five-time MLA and former MP Atiq Ahmad and his former MLA brother Khalid Azim were shot dead by three small time shooters while being taken for a medical check-up in judicial custody in Prayagraj on April 15, 2023.

Recently on March 28, jailed Mafioso-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, who claimed to have an impact in some seats of Ghazipur, Mau and adjoining areas, died due to cardiac arrest in Banda jail. He was five-term MLA from Mau Sadar seat and helped make his elder brother Afzal Ansari an MP from Ghazipur Lok Sabha seat twice.