LUCKNOW: Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, 66, a six-time MP, has a penchant for hogging the limelight. Often for the wrong reasons. Be it the confession on camera that he shot the killer of his friend, or slapping a wrestler on a dais over a minor issue. Now, India's ace wrestlers are alleging that he has been guilty of sexual harassment many times in his role as the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).
Singh has been heading WFI for over 12 years and is the vice president of the United World Wrestling-Asia.
There are many layers to this ruling party MP who represents Kaiserganj constituency in Lok Sabha.
Interestingly, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, likes to be called shaktishali (strongman) and being a wrestling buff, he spent much of his youth in the akhadas of Ayodhya. He has been a BJP MP for five terms and also got elected to the august house once as the SP candidate in 2009.
Singh has represented Gonda and Balrampur in the past, and now Kaiserganj.
Hailing from Gonda, Singh has been vocal about his Hindutva credentials. He has been deeply associated with RSS and VHP during the temple movement in 1989. He proclaims himself to be a Kar Sevak, who was in Ayodhya when Babri Masjid was razed on December 6, 1992 and was named as an accused with LK Advani, MM Joshi, Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh in the Masjid demolition case.
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At the same time, he was also accused of helping Dawood Ibrahim gang members including Subhash Thakur, Jayendra Thakur and Paresh Desai, accused of killing an accomplice of Arun Gawli. Brij Bhushan was booked under TADA on allegations of links with the D-Company. However, later, he was absolved in both the Babri demolition and TADA cases.
Once a history-sheeter, he now has just four criminal cases of attempt to murder, rioting and dacoity against him and does not figure on the list of gangsters anymore in UP.
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh now lords over at least 50 educational institutions in Devi Patan range including Bahraich, Gonda, Balrampur, Ayodhya and Shravasti districts, believed to be another source of his strength in UP.
He enjoys a lot of goodwill and exercises influence. At least a lakh of students study pharmacy, law, agriculture and other courses in his institutes. According to a UP BJP leader, every year on Singh’s birthday (January 8), students are shortlisted via a talent search to be rewarded with scooties, motorcycles and cash.
"Singh also waives off the fee of thousands of students every year," the leader added.
He has now started handing over his political legacy to the next generation. His younger son Prateek Bhushan is now a second-term MLA from Gonda while the elder one Karan is an office-bearer in WFI. His wife Ketki Devi Singh is the president of the Gonda Zila Panchayat.
A passionate wrestler from his early days, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh is considered to be a tough administrator. He makes it a point to be present at wrestling tournaments -- national or international, senior or junior. He watches bouts, often shouts out instructions to referees, and at times, even throws the rule book at the judges.
This strongman from Gonda in central UPs established himself in politics by dislodging the long-time MP from his native constituency and the scion of the local royal family, Raja Anand Singh. He had contested and won his first Lok Sabha election in 1991. He was re-elected to the lower house of Parliament in 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019.
In an interview, Brij Bhushan had recalled the time when BJP fielded him against Anand Singh, who was a four-time sitting Congress MP. He has recounted how he was called by the district police chief, who asked him to withdraw his candidature.
"I refused and a heated argument took place. I whipped up my pistol and pointed at him. He was taken aback. Thereafter, I left his office in my vehicle," he had remembered.
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Brij Bhushan won his Lok Sabha seat by over 1 lakh votes in 1991. His wife retained the seat in 1996 when he was in jail in connection with Babri demolition case; he lost it to Anand Singh’s son Kirti Vardhan in 1998 and won it back in 1999.
In 2004, Brij Bhushan was denied the ticket and BJP fielded Ghanshyam Shukla instead. Shukla was killed in a freak accident on the day of polling, when he was going to the District Magistrate to lodge a complaint.
His family, however, cried foul. Brij Bhushan was blamed for the fatal accident of BJP candidate and reportedly earned the wrath of the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Consequently, he quit the BJP to join SP and shifted to neighbouring Kaiserganj, which he won in 2009.
He rejoined BJP in 2014 and now represents Kaiserganj as a saffron MP. Singh is believed to enjoy huge political clout and is said to hold sway in half a dozen Lok Sabha constituencies -- Gonda, Balrampur, Bahraich, Domariyaganj, Kaiserganj and Shravasti. BJP currently has five of these six seats. Shravasti is with the BSP.
