BJP MP accused of harassing wrestlers is a controversial bahubali with a wide fanbase

Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh was an accused in the Babri demolition case and charged under TADA, but the strongman’s influence in three UP districts may protect him from the political consequences of the harassment allegations

The BJP Lok Sabha member from Kaiserganj and Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is facing serious allegations of harassment levelled by Olympian wrestlers, has been a controversial figure in Uttar Pradesh politics for more than three decades.

Like many other bahubalis or strongmen, who appeared on UP’s electoral horizon during the 1990s thanks to the State’s unstable political circumstances, Mr. Singh, 66, also made himself a prominent player in the Gonda-Balrampur-Bahraich belt. The MP faces four criminal cases including serious charges of robbery and attempt to murder according to his 2019 election affidavit. He was once also charged under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA).

However, he has developed a wide network of supporters not only in his own Rajput community but also in other caste groups since 1991, when he was first elected to the Sabha member on a BJP ticket from Gonda. Mr. Singh’s supporters consider him a guardian.

Even now, when the parliamentarian is facing serious allegations, support is coming from his home turf. “Anybody comes and levelled allegations on our guardian and we listen silently. Never, we will teach them lessons,” says Akash Shukla, an enthusiastic supporter of Mr. Singh in Bahraich.

Since the WFI controversy erupted, many supporters of the Kaiserganj MP are making it an issue of Uttar Pradesh pride, with some even calling it a false charge levelled by players “of a particular region”, hinting at the Haryana’s roots of many wrestlers. “Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is the pride of Uttar Pradesh,” adds Mr. Shukla. The Kaiserganj MP himself called the protesting players a toy in the hands of the Congress Rajya Sabha member from Haryana, Deependra Singh Hooda.

Mr. Singh is not new to controversies. He was named as an accused in the Babri demolition case and charged under TADA for allegedly sheltering shooters of a notorious UP criminal group, although he was later acquitted. In 1993, the Rajput leader was accused of attacking a former UP minister and another strongman Vinod Kumar Singh alias Pandit Singh with whom he had a turf war for over three decades. He was later acquitted by the court in the matter.

A graduate in law from Avadh University, Mr. Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha from Balrampur in 2004, but then left the BJP in 2008 to join the Samajwadi Party (SP). Many in UP believed that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was not happy with Mr. Singh. In 2009, he was elected on the SP symbol from Kaiserganj but then switched back to the BJP fold in the run-up to the 2014 parliamentary polls and emerged victorious again from the same seat.