On March 6, 2012, the day Samajwadi Party (SP) romped back to power in Uttar Pradesh, among the first people to visit Mulayam Singh Yadav at his house in Lucknow was Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya. He arrived in his SUV which he prefers to drive himself. Often referred to as the kunwar (prince) of Kunda, having been born into the erstwhile royal family of Beti, the MLA from Kunda in Pratapgarh district received a welcome reserved only for a select few. The septuagenarian patriarch of the party stood up to receive him.
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Days later, Akhilesh Yadav, UP's new chief minister, warmly welcomed Raja Bhaiyya (46), a Thakur, into his Cabinet. That Raja Bhaiyya then had 45 criminal cases pending against him did not seem to matter. A year later, the five-time MLA is in the eye of another storm: for the murder of Deputy Superintendent of Police Zia-ul-Haq. The Central Bureau of Investigation has booked him for murder.But then the Lucknow University alumnus has had several run-ins with the law. The first time was when he was barely 19. However, but for eight cases, all others been disposed of either because witnesses turned hostile or due to lack of evidence. In some, the government came to his rescue.
But not everybody remembers him as the man who is often on the wrong side of law. Balram Chauhan, professor at Lucknow University, recalls meeting Raja Bhaiyya when he was yet to enter politics. "He had come to meet a student (at Balrampur Hostel) and touched my feet. I have met him several times since. He comes across as grounded and courteous."
Raja Bhaiyya first entered UP assembly in 1993, when he was in his 20s. In 1997, he became the UP sports minister in the Kalyan Singh cabinet (BJP). There was a time when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati also seemed to be warming up to him, but he invited her ire when he tried to split the party after the BSP-BJP alliance fell apart. In 2002, Mayawati, the then chief minister, slapped the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) against him. He was jailed along with his father, Uday Pratap Singh, and cousin, Akshay Pratap Singh alias Gopal Ji.
During his incarceration, he drifted towards SP, helped by then party general secretary Amar Singh. When SP assumed power in 2003, the government dropped the POTA charges. Two years later, he was propped up as a minister and has since owed allegiance to the Yadav chieftain.
Ironically, the man who had spent time in jail was made in charge of prisons. Soon after taking over, he suspended the jail superintendent and the deputy jailor of a prison in Lucknow after detecting, in a surprise visit, that substandard food was being served to inmates. In April 2012, he directed the officials to install coolers, fans and water-coolers for jail inmates. He ordered that the inmates be allowed to meet their relatives at least once a week. He said that since he'd spent time in jail, he was aware of the plight of the inmates.
Some of the stories around Raja Bhaiyya sound incredulous. One of them revolves around his crocodile-infested lake into which many of his adversaries are said to have ended up. The poor in his constituency, however, look upon him as their 'Robin Hood'. Besides criminal charges, Raja Bhaiyya, who is an avid horse rider and also has a passion for flying, had faced cases under the Aircraft Act and the Civil Aviation Act for violating flight rules.
Despite the murder charges he faces, Raja Bhaiyya continues to enjoy strong backing of legislators from the Thakur community. The CBI clearly has its task cut out.
